Wes, we’re not whining but drowning

Copperfield on how the health secretary has completely misread the room regarding the general practice access changes

Speaking about the current contractual furore, Wez sez there are some GPs who ‘just don’t agree with the change, don’t think it’s desirable, and have just taken the “we’re not doing this” approach’. Amazing. It’s almost like he knows me.

Except, of course, there’s a bit more to it than a few bolshy GPs mouthing off. True, he’d probably argue that he’s just making an inconsequential contractual wording tweak. Inconsequential, that is, apart from the consequences of provoking calls to re-enter a contract dispute and stirring up GPCE internecine warfare.

Oh, and also the possibility of 18,000 of my patients bunging in an online request at 6.29pm which, depending on how you read the contract/guidance, need to be dealt with that same day, meaning this inconsequence breaks both our will to live and the laws of physics.

But putting all that aside, the real issue is that Mr Streeting has not read the room. Every area of the NHS apart from general practice can, and has, battened down the hatches. Hospitals and community services can cower behind referral criteria, remote consulting, A&G, role definition, buck passing, responsibility avoidance, diversion, ignoring communications and a multitude of other work-avoidance techniques.

General practice has no such hatches to batten. We are the final common pathway for everything that is our responsibility and much that isn’t. We cannot put a lid on that demand, and nor can we distance ourselves from the frustration that causes patients: we are the visible, accessible face of the NHS. For some patients that’s a comfort but for others it’s chance to give that face a punch, sometimes literally.

We’re already drowning, yet Wes’ contractual tweak to online access simply turns the taps on full and bans us from touching them.

So those moans the health secretary can hear are not the reflex whinges of work-shy luddites. They’re the sounds made when thumbscrews are tightened. He says his door is always open, so you’d think he could hear the difference.

Dr Copperfield is a GP in Essex. Read more of his blogs here