My practice - like many small/single-handed practices - closes at 1pm on
Wednesdays. The out-of-hours service covers from 1pm onwards. Twas ever
thus.
When the PCOs take over out-of-hours, things will change.
I went to a LMC meeting last night. At the front of the house were various
great and good peeps. One of them - Professor something - stated that the
DOH view on this matter was fairly clear.
The notion of the half-day in the week developed in the days when GPs were
on-call 1-in-1 or 1-in-2 and most worked Saturday mornings.
Under nGMS, no Saturdays, GPs working '9-til-5' (or 8-til-6.30), and thus no
good argument for half-days.
Personally, Wednesday afternoons off from the practice are keeping me sane
(more or less). Under nGMS, I could come to an arrangement with neighbouring
practices to concoct a rota of sorts, so that I might only have to work
1-in-whatever Wednesdays. I could employ a locum to cover Wednesday
afternoons for me - at 180ukp per session, 720ukp per month.
Anyone else facing the loss of their half day?
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