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Family Doctor Services

I specifically referred to the past three years. Staffing costs have increased for general practice, and the front of this week's GP, the GPs' magazine, reveals that some GP practices could face a 10-year pay freeze. So not all GP practices' finances are rosy, and GPs are feeling persecuted and undermined by the Government. Morale is very low. One result of the pay rise was a rebalancing of GPs' morale, but there was also an easing in recruitment. It became easier to recruit on to the GP training scheme and to recruit new GPs. However, over the past few years, that has suddenly and dramatically changed and it is again becoming difficult to recruit. Just in my constituency, I know of GPs who are leaving general practice to go to New Zealand or the US, because of the demoralisation and confusion about the future of the service that GPs are beginning to feel. Patients want, above all else, the stability and continuity of having access to a GP whom they know and with whom they have built up a relationship. They want to have confidence in their GP, especially if they have a difficult illness or are elderly. GPs work on the relationship with their patients because they know the value of having a good relationship with them, including an element of confidence. Polyclinics will probably include Australian or other antipodean doctors, or Polish doctors. They will come and staff the clinic for six months, probably as part of their travels, and then move on. The relationship that patients have with their GPs will no longer exist. GPs are leaving the service at the moment, so I would like to know how the polyclinics that the Government propose will be staffed. Where will the GPs come from? Many GPs want to retain the service that they provide to their communities, because that is what patients want. Patients do not want polyclinics. As the end users of the service, patients must have a voice in deciding what will be provided. GPs must also have a voice in what they are going to provide. By and large, they do not want large polyclinics. In rural constituencies such as mine, with a high elderly population and poor transport links, it is preposterous to suggest that people will be able to get on a bus and travel to a polyclinic. Bus services have been cut dramatically in the past two years, so they will be unable to get a bus to a polyclinic, wherever it might be. It is also likely that such a clinic would be in Bedford or the outer areas of that town, but only 12 per cent. of my constituency is built on, as it is a rural area. It would be extremely difficult for my constituents to get to a polyclinic. Another problem is staffing. More GPs are leaving the profession than are arriving. Which services will be offered in the polyclinics? If radiography services and other physiotherapy services are to be carried out in polyclinics, who will carry them out in hospitals? Hospitals are already finding recruitment difficult. If a radiographer is out in a polyclinic, who will be in the hospital?