Saving money at health’s expense - letter
WHO is running our health service?
Harmoni is setting the rules for running the out of hours GP service. The NHS has abdicated its responsibility for determining the way the service will be run. Harmoni says savings must be made and so Harmoni has decided to axe the Newmarket centre. Harmoni took on the service in the knowledge that there was a GP-based service at Newmarket. What kind of contract is it that enables the contractor to determine the level of service it will provide? It is like asking a builder to build you a four-bedroom house only to find that you are going to get three bedrooms. The builder says that when you have lived in it for three months he will decide whether or not you need a fourth bedroom.
There was a time when each of us had a named GP who was responsible for our care 24 hours a day, each and every day. When the GP went on holiday he had to tell the NHS who he had appointed as his locum. All this was negotiated away by a civil servant who didn’t understand the disservice he was doing to the NHS.
So where do we go from here? Harmoni has given as a reason for this action that there is an alternative base at Mildenhall within half an hour of Newmarket. This may well be the case if you drive yourself but what if you do not own a car, a bus will take a lot longer and does not run at 3am when you need one; a taxi will cost a lot more. Even if you are fortunate enough to own a car there is the added cost of petrol. So Harmoni intends to save money at our expense.
What attitude is Harmoni going to adopt towards patients who insist on the GP visiting them at home? Is it going to pay for adequate locum cover to attend all those who say they need a visit, or is it going to attempt to diagnose over the phone? While there is a place for telephone triage, personally if I were a GP I would prefer to see the patient myself, so that I could put myself in a proper position to exercise my clinical judgement. The government needs to save £20 billion on the NHS budget. Who is going to believe that the NHS is safe with the Coalition, when faced with this kind of incompetence.
Barry Salter
Ferndale Close
Newmarket
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Friday 25 May 2012
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