'GPs earn enough - I don't want to hear them moan about pay and work conditions'

You have to wonder why some doctors go into medicine these days. It's not out of any sense of vocation that's for sure.

This week a new survey revealed that three quarters of GP's want to go on strike citing pay and their excessive workload.

Are these the same GP partners who NHS data shows in England earn an average of £153,000 a year and who had a ten grand pay hike last year?

Are they the same GPs whose salaries have risen by more than a quarter since the start of the pandemic?

Are they the same GPs who claim they're buckling under the strain of having to see so many patients yet work a three- day-week?

Are they the same GP's who moan about having too many patients but who've actually voted in favour of a campaign to cut their hours so they work just 9-5pm.

I wonder how GPs think the patients who have to wait for weeks for an appointment feel about what patient groups have called these "eye watering salaries".

This latest poll carried out by GP Online found that 83% of GPs have voted for industrial action which if they went on strike would mean the backlog of people waiting for appointment would spiral.

Instead of a two or three week wait it would be months. How is that fair?

How many cancers will be missed. How much extra pain, fear and distress would be inflicted on their patients?

And what kind of doctor could ever abandon patients in order to bump up their already humungous salaries?

The BMA Union, which has done more damage to doctors and their reputations that most other unions, says the profession is sick of being " bullied and gaslit". I'm sorry but that's abject tosh! How are they being bullied?

People who work a three-day - week out of choice and get £153,000 a year for it for it aren't victims.

No-one's buying the BMA's bull any more. It has its own agenda and it sure as Hell isn't patient care.

It never makes sense to me when doctor says going on strike and abandoning patients is actually for their own good and they will benefit the in the long run. How's that then?

How will an extra ten grand in the GPs pay packet be better for patients desperate to see a GP.

What the Hell has happened to GP's in recent years?

Yes I get that many feel overworked; we've just come out of a worldwide pandemic. But their pay has gone up by 25% since the start of the pandemic so their efforts have not gone unrewarded.

And Yes, they may have more patients but that's because our population is exploding and it's not exploding because of indigenous Brits. It's because of people coming to live here.

I keep reading arguments that GPs have a right to a family life.

Sorry but those on a three-day week have plenty of time for a family life. And they don't work weekends.

As for those doctors who want to work 9 - 5 why the Hell did they ever go into medicine in the first place? It's not a 9-5 profession and if they try to make it so more and more people will die.

And what professions work just 9-5 these days? None that I know and certainly none that bring pay checks of £150,000 a year plus.

GPs are some of the highest paid professionals in the country and moaning about low pay just won't wash with people who can't get to see them for love nor money.

I have friends who are GPs and Yes, they work like dogs. But I know they'd never go on strike. Not in a million years, because they care enough about their patients enough not to make them vulnerable.

The GPs in my own practice have rarely, if ever, let me down. You can still get to see one face to face if there's a problem. But that's not the case in every practice.

But when did it happen that a doctor was prepared to walk away from sick people to get more money?

And when GPs say their workload has become intolerable do they understand how hard other people work? Do they know there are legions of people who put in many more hours than they do but for a fraction of their money?

There's no argument that GPs work hard, but they are generously rewarded for it. And if their workload is as intolerable as they say why would they be campaigning to work fewer hours (9-5) when the reality is they should be doing more hours not less.

The profession has changed out of all recognition. I'm old enough to remember the days when GPs cared more about the people in their care than cash; when they DID work evenings and weekends, when they did come to your home in an emergency - even if it was late at night.

What happened to the spirit of those people?