There is a group of primary care providers who have been largely overlooked in the media battle that’s been fought over extending surgery hours.
I’m referring to practice staff – the thousands of managers, receptionists, cleaners etc who will be affected by the changes being forced through by the government. And, now I think of it, primary care nurses have also been kept out of the picture.
This is not coincidence. While GPs may be acutely aware of the impact of these changes on the organisation of their whole practices, the government has managed to focus attention purely on the ‘fat cat’ family doctors.
Ministers and their spinners have successfully demonised GPs over the past year, gradually building up resentment in the media over the terms of their contracts. Now we see the pay-off, in that despite a lot of hot air from the GPC and BMA, the profession’s representatives have caved in at the first opportunity, afraid (as usual) of bad publicity. But could the publicity have been any worse?
Anyway, as practices start to realise that they will have to implement some form of extended hours in about six weeks’ time, they will need to answer the difficult questions about which staff will be required to work when, and who will want to, or be able to, do the extra hours.
Many of the practice staff that ministers have so far ignored, will no doubt have serious concerns about the damage to their own working and home lives, and HR issues will become a major headache as the practical reality of extended hours dawns at practices across the country.
But for DoH officials it’s just another ill-informed, poorly thought-out policy, ruthlessly implemented without any concern for the lives or morale of NHS staff. In short, just another day at the office.