GPS vote on cutting two and a half hours off working day

DOCTORS are to vote on whether they should scale back their hours.

Currently, GP practices are supposed to be open from 8am till 6.30pm daily.

But doctors attending the British Medical Association’s conference of local committees next month are to vote on cutting back their work time by two and a half hours.

The changes would mean routine hours were 9am to 5pm, with GPS paid extra for working outside such hours.

Avon Local Medical Committee will propose a motion that says “urgent action” should be taken to manage the imbalance between workload and workforce within general practice.

GPS said the public had “additional and unrealistic expectations of general practice” after the pandemic.

Another proposal calls for “safe workload limits”.

It comes after government research found that most GPS now work three days or less a week.

The study commissioned by the Department of Health and published earlier this month shows a “substantial” fall in hours worked since the pandemic, with just half of family doctors in work by Friday afternoons. In total, 58.4 per cent of family doctors were found to be working six half-day sessions or fewer. This compares with 50.1 per cent when in last survey in 2019.

The research found that GPS, with average earnings of just over £100,000, are most likely to work a full day at the start of the week.

Despite repeated promises by the Government to expand surgery opening hours, the number of GPS working evenings and weekends has fallen sharply, the study found.

Just 27 per cent of GPS polled said their practice offered extended hours at evenings and weekends, down from 33 per cent in 2019. Over the same period, the number polled who typically worked a shift on a Saturday morning fell from 8.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

Last month, NHS officials promised that every area should have a surgery open all day on Saturdays by October.