Greedy GPs want more cash

Research showed that just one in seven GPs believe they can provide adequate night time and weekend care with the amount of cash provided – with just one in eight saying they were prepared to do the work themselves.

They say they need up to £20,000 a year per doctor – more than 25 per cent above the current amount – to ensure that potentially fatal mistakes do not occur with locum services.

Scathing reports have found that a worrying number of under-qualified foreign medics are plugging gaps.

DEBATE: ARE GPS PAID TOO MUCH?

The worst case saw German doctor Daniel Ubani administer a fatal dose of medicine just hours after landing in the UK to start his first shift.

Under a new system GPs, who are paid £103,000 a year on average, will be responsible for deciding where their funding goes, rather than Primary Care Trusts.

Matthew Elliot of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said GPs should expect unsociable hours as part of the job. He said: “They are just being greedy, especially when other people are facing pay freezes or pay cuts.”

Katherine Murphy of The Patients Association added: “This is very worrying.

“Patients cannot decide when they fall ill so the quality of care should be the same day and night. This must not boil down to a row over money.”

Serious problems began after GPs were allowed to opt out of providing out of hours care in 2004. It was thought the cost to their time was only about £6,000 a year and this was deducted from their salaries.

The role was passed to Primary Care Trusts which had to buy cover from private firms or groups of GPs for about £13,000 per doctor.

Following high-profile mistakes that have cost patient lives, the Government wants out of hours care to be handed back to GPs, who will be allowed to provide it themselves or hire others.

A poll of 410 GPs has found that most believe the amount needed to provide safe care is higher than the current sum given to PCTs.

Most said they believed it should be increased to £15,000 for each GP, while one in four said £20,000 would be needed.

Last night there was confusion over why GPs felt they did not have enough money. They will receive 80 per cent of the NHS budget in 2013 and can decide how much they spend on out of hours care and which services they cut back on.

Laurance Buckman, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said the survey by the GPs’ magazine Pulse was confused, adding: “There is no such thing as a budget for out of hours care.

“They can spend what they want out of the budget they are given to pay for all patient care. GPs personally have to deliver this or make up the shortfall. This is a storm in a teacup.”

Richard Hoey, editor of Pulse, said: “The Government never provided PCTs with the funds to match the spiralling costs.Our survey reveals concern among GPs that the same will happen to them and they will be left with responsibility for out of hours care without the funds to deliver it safely.

“They won’t be forced into a return to the bad old days of round-the-clock workload.”

Mr Hoey added: “This is not a pay rise for GPs. We need this extra cash to employ high quality local doctors and nurses to provide a better service.”

Last night a Department of Health spokesperson said: “Out of hours care needs urgent reform and GPs are best placed to ensure patients get the care they need, when they need it.

“They will be given responsibility to commission a wide range of services and will have to ensure they commission high quality care that is good value for money.

“Out of hours investment will need to be considered as part of the whole urgent care system and not as an isolated service as it used to be previously.”