'We’re being scapegoated' GP’s harrowing take on Theresa May’s seven-day health service
AN EXHAUSTED GP has accused Theresa May of scapegoating doctors after demanding that surgeries should provide seven-day service to take the pressure off the NHS.
Doctor cried herself to sleep over Tories' 7-day GP proposal
On Friday, the Prime Minister also announced medical centres should stay open between 8am and 8pm unless they can prove demand for such services is not needed.
The demand left Dr Gerada in tears as she told LBC it simply was not possible and that GPs cannot work harder than they already are.
She confessed: “When I heard this last night I actually cried myself to sleep.
“I cried for myself through exhaustion. I cried for my profession, and I cried for my patients, who, yep, you cannot get an appointment to see me.
The GP accused Theresa May of scapegoating doctors
“It's impossible. I cannot work any harder. I cannot provide more care, personally, or as my organisation."
Taking a swipe at Theresa May, the South London GP said surgeries are already 10,000 doctors short.
Continuing the impassioned plea, the LBC caller said: “What is happening is we poor GPs are so visible because we see about one and a half million people a day so we are so visible.
“We are being scapegoated for the problems that are going on. And yes there is more funding from the Government, but at the moment, and she admitted this just a few weeks ago, we are about 5,000 GPs short, actually I think we’re 10,000 GPs short.
Top doctor tells LBC free NHS treatments will cease to exist
Jeremy Corbyn accused Theresa May of being out of touch during PMQs
We just cannot work any harder, I’m sorry, it’s impossible
“And we just cannot work any harder, I’m sorry, it’s impossible.”
Adding the current workload was already making many doctors mentally ill, she said: "I love being a GP, it's the most wonderful job on earth to have the trust of patients...but every time I arrive home exhausted and I hear these headlines I just think 'what is the point?'"
It comes as Dr Mark Holland, President of the Society for Acute Medicine, said he believed taxpayers would have to fund their care privately as free treatments would cease to exist.
The doctor told LBC that free NHS treatments would come to an end however he urged the services should remain free for the most vulnerable people in British society.
He said: “I think within my lifetime, the idea of a free NHS for all treatments isn't going to exist.
“But I think that at the same time, we must maintain a free service for the most vulnerable people in our society, for the poorest people in our society, and for people who are acutely ill.
“What I don't ever, ever, ever want to see is that somebody turns up in hospital in an ambulance and the first thing they are asked to do is get their credit card out, clearly that is absolutely wrong.”
The doctors’ warnings come as Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday accused the PM of being out of touch and in "denial" about how bad things are in the NHS after 18,000 people were left on trolleys in A&E for more than four hours in the last week – failing to meet hospital targets.