Two small practices swamped my single-handed practice of 2,600, boosting it to 3,000. I was allowed to close my list at 3,000 on condition I merged with another small practice.
I’ve since resigned from my new partnership and will retire early at the end of the financial year and draw my NHS pension in April 2015 to begin the rest of my life.
We face a GP manpower tsunami next year as more and more GPs like me hand in the towel and what’s left will be unable to cope.
I’ve had just about enough as I can stomach – working harder year on year for less – forget it – early retirement it is.
People like me have put in huge amounts of our lives to keep the NHS going over last 30-40 years – my own stint has been 34 yrs. The spin doctors for current government have turned the ‘give the GPs a good kicking to shut up’ mentality into a real own goal. ‘NHS safe with us?’ It’s a joke, surely.
Dr Nigel Dickson is a GP in Southampton.
