UK family doctors might shut their doors: What's behind the new strike talks
British GPs plan to vote on complete shutdown of services due to money problems and work-load issues. Governmentʼs new tax rules could force medical practices to cut staff‚ while millions cant get appointments
British family doctors are thinking about their first-ever full strike‚ following three months of smaller protests (which started back in summer). Local medical groups want to ask doctors if they should stop all work - this comes after Wes Streetingʼs health department made some not-so-popular money choices
The main issue: practices will need to pay more tax starting next spring‚ and with higher wages for workers‚ each doctors office might lose about £140‚000 — thats like losing five nurses. Right now doctors are doing some soft protests like seeing fewer patients; but half of them say theyre ready to do more
I understand why doctors wanted to give the previous government a kicking‚ but dont shut your doors to patients
A study shows that around 5-million people couldnt reach their doctor last month when they tried calling. The British Medical Association (which speaks for doctors) says their current work-slow isnt doing enough to fix things; they want better deals when they talk about next years contracts
The government says its made some hard-but-needed choices to give £22-billion more to health-care. Helen Morgan from the Liberal-Democrats thinks this whole thing wasnt thought through: she got messages from doctors saying these new rules will end family medicine as we know it. Local medical teams will vote on bigger protests later this month; they might close everything for a while if things dont change
