Will doctors on strike affect public perceptions of GPs?
With NHS leaders and the health secretary working to find a resolution, the government will be keen to begin their run in office by finding a compromise that will address GPs' concerns while minimising disruption to healthcare services.
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00:00Yeah, they certainly feel overwhelmed by the sort of the pressure they're under. And indeed, I mean,
00:04again, the time that they have allowed to sort of see you on average, it's getting smaller and
00:10smaller. And of course, what they feel is that sort of, as inflation has eroded their sort of
00:15their pay scales, and so the amount that they get, you know, as I say, that they're working
00:20for sort of, well, of course, people regardless, pay high rates of pay, but of course, under sort
00:26of much more intense pressure. The government has urged the public to continue seeking care,
00:31as usual, and some patient groups have criticised the industrial action as selfish. How do you think
00:36this industrial action will affect public perception of GPs? And what can be done to
00:40maintain public trust during this period? Yeah, will people be sympathetic? I think that there
00:46is a degree of sympathy because we saw this, if you'd like during the pandemic, that the
00:50difficulty is that we're only sort of going one or two steps away from somebody who will be sort
00:55of affected by this action. And of course, undoubtedly, there is always a sort of very
00:59strong possibility that something that might have got picked up, that might turn out to be fairly
01:03serious, will not be that. So in that sort of sense, I think sort of people's sympathy might
01:08sort of wear thin, but at the same sort of time that they sort of feel that sort of the health
01:11service gets more, although, you know, that there is a sort of view that GPs are not badly paid,
01:16but of course, it's a sort of pretty stressful sort of experience, I know sort of one or two.
01:20And of course, the fact is that, you know, you're working long hours. And of course, a lot of sort
01:23of paperwork that goes with it. And dare I sort of say, if you don't sort of get the sort of the
01:27paperwork correct, or you miss something, then of course, you know, that can be a sort of misconduct
01:32sort of charge. So of course, you know, they have to sort of work in this pressurised environment.
01:36And yeah, dare I say, I wouldn't want to have to sit there and sort of, you know, hour after hour,
01:40just see a succession of people coming through with all the complaints. So it is very important
01:45that these people sort of feel valued. But of course, not for the first time, I expect, you
01:49know, we're going to see a lot more of this in sort of coming months and years in this government
01:53dealing with sort of long standing problems, of which there is no immediate solution,
01:57apart from lots more money, which of course, they don't have.