GPs forced to cut hours in heating crisis
Fears that family doctor service could collapse
HUNDREDS of GP surgeries are cutting hours because they cannot afford to heat their practice.
An alarming survey found more than one in 10 GP partners have been forced to make the economies.
Nearly a quarter are not hiring, with 16% of those polled freezing pay or offering below inflation rises.
And 41% have cut energy use and one in five have asked staff to wear more layers so they can lower heating.
Nearly one in 10 said they were even considering shutting and returning NHS contracts.
Some practices have seen bills rocket sixfold since last winter.
Doctors last night blasted the lack of support from Government – and said GP services risked collapse.
Dr Clare Bannon, from the British Medical Association, said the research by medical website Pulse shows “the situation is unsustainable”.
GP partners are leaving the NHS in droves with numbers down 11% in three years. Latest figures show there are around 17,000 GP partners in England running some 6,500 practices.
Dr Jackie Applebee, 59, a salaried GP in East London, and member of Doctors in Unite, may retire early.
She said heavy workloads and burnout were behind the mass exit, adding: “Nobody wants to be a GP partner any more. They are given a fixed amount to run certain services and what’s left after paying staff, rent, heating and all else… that is their salary. So if energy bills rocket what partners take home falls.
“It’s making young doctors and partners close to retirement think ‘Why would I want a job so precarious?’
“There are practices all over the country down to their last partner.
“If general practice collapses, the NHS will completely fall over.”
A Government spokesman said: “Public sector businesses have energy capped. Support is applied to all eligible bills. We are investing at least £1.5billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024.
“There are more than 2,000 extra doctors in general practice compared to
December 2019.”
Practices all over the country are down to their last partner
DR JACKIE APPLEBEE