Copperfield finds that the Government’s plan for GPs to be included in the additional roles reimbursement scheme doesn’t add up
So, secondly, I should point out that I’m not great at numbers.
But I’ve found an envelope, located the back of it, and here goes.
There are 1,250 PCNs sharing the shiny, ARRS-funded 1,000 new recruits, meaning 0.8 GP per PCN.
Say full time is nine sessions each week, then 0.8 x 9 =7 sessions.
And say each session involves three hours of consulting time, that’s 21 hours of additional weekly consultations. At the currently recommended four consults per hour, that’s 84 appointments.
Each PCN has about five practices, which means 84/5 = 17 appointments per practice per week.
Which comes to, da da, three consults per day.
Numerical anoraks don’t need to check the maths too closely, because I hope the point is made. An extra three (or whatever) appointments per day isn’t great for continuity and is certainly not going to save us. Nor is it going to save freshly minted GPs from oblivion, because how can being spread so thinly comprise an attractive job offer? (A: it can’t, so the role will morph into something else equally unappealing).
But it might, of course, save the new Government from headlines about new GPs sitting idle watching daytime TV while the populace on that daytime TV bemoans the lack of GP appointments. Because the government has poured more money in, acted decisively, now it’s up to the GPs etc etc.
I have no reason to doubt that Wes Streeting’s really does want to reset the relationship between GPs and the Government into one that involves the two of us running soft-focusedly, hand in hand, through golden fields of corn.
The problem is, whenever we hear promises of a new pot of money, or a comment that we’re the bedrock of the NHS, or an effusive thanks for all we do, we adopt the crash position. Because we know something bad will come, usually in the next sentence.
So excuse the cynicism. Even as we wait for the brickbat, this bouquet, given the numbers, feels a bit limp – and more about scoring political points than building relationships. Then again, I know as much about politics as I do about maths.
It’ll be like dividing a roast chicken between 6 people all of whom want a leg. That sorry 0.8 GP will get to know something about being drawn and quartered.
Hopefully Wes will decide to shake that magic money tree which the last lot refused to do (although modern monetary theory, which they subscribed to, states there is a limitless money supply).
It’s OK if you are one of the lucky practices that gets a GP with one arm or one leg, as their 80% of a GP, but what if you get the one with no head ?