Letters From A Tory

Dear Alan Johnson,

It is hard to know where to direct this letter, seeing as the current situation with regard to GP’s pay has been building up for years.  Even so, your tough talking on the latest pay increase for GPs will ultimately be fruitless unless you bribe them with even more taxpayers’ money.

Let’s start by reiterating a few important points.  In 2004 GPs worked shorter hours for 25% more pay thanks to a new government contract, and in 2006 the average earnings of GPs increased by nearly 10% to more than £110,000 in just one year.  If you are trying to tell me that GP’s are working 35% longer hours or seeing 35% more patients than they were in 2004, you deserve to be taken out the back and given a metaphorical kicking.  The latest bribe of £150m is apparently designed to be a sweetener for GPs to work longer hours, which shows how completely out of control GP’s pay and conditions are.

When the government is in charge of the NHS, this is the kind of ridiculously one-sided ‘negotiation’ that the taxpayer faces.  If GPs don’t get what they want, they refuse to reform their practices.  Value for money with regard to GPs will only be achieved when the NHS is handed over to independent firms who will only pay doctors, nurses, consultants and everyone else in the NHS for the work they do and the quality of service they provide.  This is why the consumer must have the power in the NHS and not the government.  If you read my NHS paper uploaded onto this blog, you might begin to understand why this is so important - but I suppose you are too busy trying to bribe GPs to worry about long-term solutions.

Yours in frustration,

A.Tory