Can't get in to see your doctor? Highly paid GPs accused of driving up waiting times by favouring lucrative private clients over NHS patients
- Many doctors work part-time for the NHS taking time out to see private patients
- One in 30 GP consultations is privately paid for, netting doctors £550m a year
- A pressure group said it was 'pretty obvious' NHS patients would wait longer
Highly paid GPs have been accused of driving up waiting times by favouring lucrative private clients over their NHS patients.
Many family doctors are working part-time for the NHS, taking time out to see patients who fork out up to £150 for a swift appointment.
One in 30 GP consultations is privately paid for, according to the latest available figures in a 2014 report by market research firm LaingBuisson, netting doctors £550 million a year. The number today could be higher still.
Highly paid GPs have been accused of driving up waiting times by favouring lucrative private clients over their NHS patients (stock photo)
Last month Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, of the Royal College of GPs, warned long waits were ‘driving people away from the NHS’. And while NHS patients can be forced to wait weeks to see their own doctor, The Mail on Sunday found NHS GPs would see paying individuals within hours.
Although the GPs are not breaking any rules, Joyce Robins of pressure group Patient Concern said: ‘If they are working privately for part of the week, it’s pretty obvious that is going to drive up waiting times for their NHS patients.’
GP partners earn £111,500 on average from the NHS – at a time when satisfaction with them has hit a record low. Mrs Robins added: ‘GPs should not be taking money from the NHS and then popping off at midday to make lots more money in the private sector. They should be banned from doing private work.’
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Almost a quarter of NHS patients now have to wait more than a week for an appointment, the official GP Patient Survey shows. For those who want to see a particular GP – rather than a doctor they do not know – the wait can be longer still.
Yet in the summer, the British Medical Association approved a motion to limit the number of NHS appointments GPs have to 25 a day. Union members argue seeing any more is dangerous. But many GPs are happy working evenings or weekends to see paying patients – or even seeing them in office hours.
In St Albans, six GPs at The Maltings NHS Surgery also work for a private service called the Hertfordshire Clinic – whose entrance is at the back of the same building.
The Maltings’ 19,000 NHS patients have to endure some of the longest waits in England, according to the GP Patient Survey, with 54 per cent waiting over a week for an appointment. When a reporter rang to ask when the first available NHS appointment was with senior partner Dr Julian Godlee, he was told the GP’s next free slot was in early October – a five-week wait.
Many family doctors are working part-time for the NHS, taking time out to see patients who fork out up to £150 for a swift appointment
Yet when we rang the Hertfordshire Clinic we were offered a £130 half-hour slot with Dr Godlee the following day. A string of private services matching patients and GPs have been set up – among them Babylon, Push Doctor and Doctaly.
We were offered a private consultation with London GP Dr Soraya Meer through Doctaly within 24 hours of enquiring. But when we called NHS surgery Lancaster Gate Medical Centre, where she is GP Principal, we were told her first available slot was in two weeks.
Last night, a Maltings spokesman said: ‘The Hertfordshire Clinic does not see any patients registered at the Maltings Surgery for any private GP appointments. All patients who contact us with urgent problems will speak to a clinician on the same day at The Maltings Surgery.’
Doctaly said its service ‘reduces the demand for NHS appointments, as those willing and able to pay come off the NHS waiting list’.
Dr Meer said: ‘Appointment times available to Doctaly are outside doctors’ NHS surgery times and do not impact on the number of appointments offered to NHS patients.’
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