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Originally Posted by Rowcoy
With regard to the other points pharmacists already have more power than most people realise with regard to issuing medication, it is a myth that you need a prescription to get a prescription medicine. As long as you have already been prescribed that medicine by a doctor previously and it is reasonable that you would require that medicine on a long term basis a pharmacist can provide you with an emergency supply if you are unable to obtain a prescription from a doctor.
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Why limit it to emergency issuing as ultimately it still means the GP has to issue another prescription, although in my case my tablets now get delivered and the prescription is automated and sent to the chemist, so they have some kind of backend system already that helps, but I think they can go further by removing the need of prescriptions from GPs altogether on some drugs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowcoy
X-Rays in a GP surgery is something I like; however until we move to an alternative funding system I don't think it would be practical for every surgery to absorb the capital cost of the equipment plus the provision of qualified radiographers of which there is already a big shortage of.
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Glad you agree and yes there would be an initial cost of capital outlay on equipment, regarding the staff to operate the equipment, well my dentist were able to X ray my teeth in their surgery.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowcoy
In principle 7 day GP working is a great idea; however the big issue at the moment with this is there simply are not enough GPs in this country to make it work. There is also a growing body of evidence that suggests that when weekend appointments are available they are not always used. Personally I would prefer increased numbers of GPs working during the week when we do know that demand is massively out stripping the supply, hence why surgeries appointments are all fully booked within 5-10 minutes of opening!
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We have the GPs they just unwilling to work the longer hours. To provide more GP access during the week needs more GPs, to add weekend visits does not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowcoy
How do you propose stopping GPs from doing private work? As far as I am aware the vast majority are not Technically employed by the NHS they are employed by their surgery which is an independent provider and is paid a sum per patient that is registered at that surgery.
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This is hard I agree, I dont know the exact legal issues they have right now so hard to say, but they could do either of the following, not without problems, of course, would likely be protests etc.
1 - Reform the system so GPs are employed directly - very unlikely to happen
2 - Change the contracts with the GP surgeries so that they are not allowed to employ doctors who do other paid work.
3 - Make the amount each surgery is paid dependent on number of opening hours, this would indirectly encourage these surgeries to have their GPs put in the hours.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowcoy
As far as I am aware a lot of GPs already offer telephone consultations and some even use video conferencing for this as well. It is also already possible to email the surgery I am registered at with non urgent queries.
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Problem is it is not universal, its a lottery, stuff like this should be made a nationwide NHS policy and forced up on the surgeries. Telephone consultations do have smaller slots at my surgery meaning they fit in more patients but are still less efficient than email. My surgery has no email or video conferencing service for the record.