most GPs are not NHS staff; the vast majority of GPs are independent contractors not directly employed by the NHS
This really annoys me. Somehow the family doctor service in the UK has been re-privatized.
My local GP surgery (or "medical centre" as they prefer to call it) seems to be owned by about half a dozen partner doctors who have their names "over the door" as it were.
However whenever I do manage to get an appointment (similar experience to others' comments) I never get to see one of them but instead get a very young looking doctor that I've never seen before and never see again.
When I complained about this as being contrary to the accepted concept of "continuity of care" the excuse I finally got back is that it's a "teaching practice" although their web site makes no mention of this that I can find.
What I think is really happening is that the partners hire fresh off the boat/from medical school doctors that they can pay bottom-end salaries. As soon as said doctor has gained enough experience for a pay rise to be in order, they let them go and hire a new one.
In the meantime this allows the partners to take on private patients and rake in the taxpayers money the practice gets for having NHS patients on the books.
This is a disgrace in the UK, which is supposed to have a fair and publicly run health system paid for out of general taxation & national insurance contributions.
And don't even get me started on UK dentists ...
take up valuable clinician time – time that should be spent treating patients
Or, for the partners, on the golf course in Florida.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
