To: Health Secretary UK government
Support GP practices - Partners not private enterprise
Reverse the decisions to privatise GP practices and take urgent action to prevent further privatisation.
Why is this important?
A family doctor, who knows your medical history, is vital to our health and well being and should be available for all of us.
Our GP practices are under more pressure than ever before. There is a national shortage of GPs and central government is undermining and failing to support surgeries which are led by GP partners - instead they are encouraging the privatisation of GP surgeries leading to disastrous consequences for patient care.
Companies such as Virgin, Boots and US company Operose are buying up GP practices when the GPs eventually give up due to underfunding. The private Companies may even get more funding than the GPs were given in some cases. Patients then find that they are unable to get appointments and the same level of care they received before.
One practice in Kent, bought up in 2016, went from outstanding, when run by GPs, to inadequate in the 18 months after it was bought up by a private firm. Other GP surgeries have been highlighted on Panorama, showing how the private companies make more money by employing fewer GPs ( perhaps as little as 1 per practice) and making up the needs with less highly trained and much less well paid physician associates who need support, which they may or may not get, from a GP so they don't make mistakes with diagnosis or patient care.
The government is encouraging a two tier system to develop. In the near future, if this trend is not reversed, only rich people with access to private health care will be able to get reliable health care when they need it.
My own GPs have criticised the political decisions being made which are making it so difficult for the doctors - they say this started in the Thatcher years but every government since has contributed to the problem. One of them described it as "heartbreaking" because the poor will not be able to get adequate care and many may die unnecessarily. The service is at breaking point already. Almost all the appointments at my surgery are now telephone only and this can lead to mistakes being made.
I would like to see these decisions reversed by the government and I call on the Health Secretary to take urgent action.
It is completely inappropriate for private companies to be running GP surgeries for big profit while neglecting patient care. Central government should be adequately supporting GP led and run partnerships- they are the ones who know how to do the job properly and they are invested in the work. Big business just doesn't care. It's profits before people.
If we all petition the Government on this issue, they have to take notice as privatisation of the NHS through the back door is an election loser. I want this to be debated in the House of Commons.
This is a national issue which affects all of us.
Our GP practices are under more pressure than ever before. There is a national shortage of GPs and central government is undermining and failing to support surgeries which are led by GP partners - instead they are encouraging the privatisation of GP surgeries leading to disastrous consequences for patient care.
Companies such as Virgin, Boots and US company Operose are buying up GP practices when the GPs eventually give up due to underfunding. The private Companies may even get more funding than the GPs were given in some cases. Patients then find that they are unable to get appointments and the same level of care they received before.
One practice in Kent, bought up in 2016, went from outstanding, when run by GPs, to inadequate in the 18 months after it was bought up by a private firm. Other GP surgeries have been highlighted on Panorama, showing how the private companies make more money by employing fewer GPs ( perhaps as little as 1 per practice) and making up the needs with less highly trained and much less well paid physician associates who need support, which they may or may not get, from a GP so they don't make mistakes with diagnosis or patient care.
The government is encouraging a two tier system to develop. In the near future, if this trend is not reversed, only rich people with access to private health care will be able to get reliable health care when they need it.
My own GPs have criticised the political decisions being made which are making it so difficult for the doctors - they say this started in the Thatcher years but every government since has contributed to the problem. One of them described it as "heartbreaking" because the poor will not be able to get adequate care and many may die unnecessarily. The service is at breaking point already. Almost all the appointments at my surgery are now telephone only and this can lead to mistakes being made.
I would like to see these decisions reversed by the government and I call on the Health Secretary to take urgent action.
It is completely inappropriate for private companies to be running GP surgeries for big profit while neglecting patient care. Central government should be adequately supporting GP led and run partnerships- they are the ones who know how to do the job properly and they are invested in the work. Big business just doesn't care. It's profits before people.
If we all petition the Government on this issue, they have to take notice as privatisation of the NHS through the back door is an election loser. I want this to be debated in the House of Commons.
This is a national issue which affects all of us.
