While we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that our doctors have voted in favour of abandoning strike action across the UK, many are asking how we have actually arrived at the situation. The NHS has had millions of pounds to spend but we seem to be getting a worse service now than ever before. What is going on?
In truth, the British Medical Association (BMA) has been at loggerheads with the governments, north and south of the Scottish border, for some considerable time. This is an industry which takes years of training to even break into, although there are more and more graduates finding that they no longer have positions to fill, or wages are too low to live on. Indeed we have heard stories of doctors as far afield as Germany and Scandinavia employed (from their home countries) to be on call in some areas of the UK – jobs are being lost to overseas markets for sky high prices!
As funding of the NHS comes under more and more pressure, with seemingly millions of pounds wasted on yet more levels of management, it is the GPs who seem to “get it in the neck”. We have seen calls for longer hours for the same pay and weekend openings while at the same time the government are planning to implement their idea of “super clinics” up and down the country which will put many GPs out of business.
It seems that the authorities want to make major changes in the short to medium term, but while they put their final plans in place they want GPs to bail them out. Where else in the world would you ask someone to work longer hours for the same pay, heap more surgery costs onto GPs and then have the cheek to turn around and try to replace many of them?
Graduates of the UK medical profession are moving overseas for work and slowly but surely the brain drain is starting to get stronger.
