‘Worried well’ creating burden for busy GPs

Doctors rejecting ‘bottomless pit’ demands

A former Dundee GP fears the health centre crisis will only get worse as doctors reject the “bottomless pit” demands of the profession.

Alistair Montgomery, who worked at Tay Court surgery for 21 years, also called for a “sea change” in patient attitude to ease pressure on general practice.

It emerged yesterday that up to 3,000 family doctors have left Scotland to ply their trade elsewhere.

Dr Montgomery said the flight from the profession looks set to continue as senior doctors bail out and younger colleagues avoid the sector altogether.

“Young doctors today see the demands of general practice as a bottomless pit with little quality of life,” he said.

“Medical students attending my old practice see how hard the full time partners are working and want no part of that.”

He added: “As a result folk stop coming into the profession, the situation gets worse and then even more unattractive.

“Once those at the end of their careers have stopped clinging on and have left I can see there being a real crisis.”

Dr Montgomery, who retired early because of the excessive demands of the role, said the situation cannot be resolved without patients playing their part.

He said to turn the clock back requires a “sea change in attitude by many patients in the way they use the service”.

The west end resident said general practice should be treated as a “privilege to be treasured and sensibly used and not a right at their convenience”.

He said there was a small percentage, who he described as “the worried well who have read next week’s Lancet”, who were creating a lot of work for overburdened GPs.

The Tories published evidence yesterday of what they described as a “brain drain” of 2,895 family doctors, who are “almost certain to be working abroad”.

The Royal College of General Practitioners says that Scotland needs to recruit 850 more GPs by 2021.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said the Government has increased investment in general practice every year since coming to power in 2007, adding direct support will increase by £250m by 2021.

“We are also working with the British Medical Association to deliver a new GP contract which will provide a strengthened and clarified role for Scotland’s GPs,” she added.

Andrew Cowie, a Dundee GP and vicechairman of the Tayside Local Medical Committee, has said the new contract offers a “glimmer of hope” for the service.

Dr Montgomery has urged a change in attitude from patients.