Doctors still refusing to open all hours

Amanda Crook

June 18, 2008

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NO GPs are extending their opening hours in parts of Greater Manchester - despite a big government push to make health care more accessible.

Family doctors in Bury and Bolton are not offering patients evening and weekend clinics and only a handful of clinics in Oldham and Ashton, Leigh and Wigan opened extended hours last month, according to the Department of Health .

Elsewhere in the region 42 out of 54 practices in Stockport are operating more flexible opening times, as are 42 out of 101 GP centres in Manchester.

Across Greater Manchester, around 30 per cent of GP practices are now opening `out of hours' compared with around 20 per cent nationally. Ministers want at least half of GP surgeries to offer extended opening hours, either in the evenings or at weekends, by the end of the year.

Stockport Primary Care Trust spokeswoman Gaynor Mullins said: "We are one of the first PCTs in the country to pilot a programme of increased surgery opening hours as we recognised that for many people with work commitments, getting an appointment to see their GP has been a real problem.

"The pilot schemes were very successful so we are delighted that the vast majority of GPs in Stockport have re-introduced appointments on Saturdays as well as either early in the morning or in the evening."

A typical practice with a list of 5,000 patients, opening extended hours, has to offer an extra 11 hours of appointments each month, including at least one Saturday morning session every four weeks.

Heaton Moor GP Dr David Dawson said: "Flexible opening hours have been received very positively by patients. It's great news for people with busy lifestyles."

A spokesman for Bury PCT said: "We will within the next month be finalising a specification, linking to the national requirements, to send out to GPs. This will allow the opportunity to open for extended hours."

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Longshots Wife (18/06/2008 at 13:37)

They need to adjust the hours to suit the working people. Me and hubby have just signed up with a new Dr's and that took 3 weeks to do as we needed to see the nurse first and even then she only works one afternoon a week before we could make any appointments and now its going to be another week and a half before my husband can actually get an appointment! Its not on one bit, people should be able to see their Dr when they want to, they are paid more quadruple what most of us earn and with today's shifts/working patterns the least they can do is stay open later and maybe at weekends too. And when you go to the hospital because you cannot get in with your Dr they just tell you to go back there.

jomov, Manchester (18/06/2008 at 13:55)

I agree with the last poster.

For people who work during opening hours it is massively unfair.

Again it is the unemployment who gain most from services such as this...which they do not contribute to.

Same goes for other service such as delivery services. They only give the option of delivery between certain hours which means that anyone who works between the hours of 8am and 6pm have to take time off (which could mean losing money) and the options given to you are not at all helpful. Meaning that the parcel will get sent back to the distributer.

Same with CAB...the list goes on!

only nickname left (18/06/2008 at 16:22)

Doctors obviously have to go to uni and most require or recieve financial aid while there. Why not make as part of the condition for reciving this money that once they have finish their degree they have to work for a certain amount of non normal hours each week for at least 5 years after they finish.

Longshots Wife (19/06/2008 at 19:08)

Also, did you know that out of hours Dr's can refuse to visit you at home? We tried to get one to come out to our 3 week old baby last night and they twice refused to come out and told us to call an ambulance instead. Doesn't it say in the Hippocratic Oath not to leave the patient in pain? There was apparently a change in the charter last year where Dr's can refuse to do out of hours home visits.

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