What hours do GP's actually work. My old Gp worked one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon, with no practice manager and no staff other than two harassed receptionists who were left fend for themselves as he often disappeared. Is no one actually monitoring the working hours of GP's. On the average salary of £100000 per annum this gives him an hourly rate of £192.00 on the actual hours worked. The local PCT ignore complaints

Tracy, London, UK

SOLO GP Practices cannot be expected to work after hours. GPs are humans too.
If market demand is there for night and weekends- with extra patient co-pays, then the market will develop GROUP practices of GPs who will service after hours rotations.
We do this in California. They are called Walk-Ins. Just produce your MasterCard and Voila ! Instant 24/7 care, no problem. Try it Britain ,and your problem is solved, Next !

wilfred knight, orange county, usa/california

What's wrong with £100 000 a year for GPs. I am a GP earning about that much. I feel the reward is comparable to other professions such as law and accountancy especially when I had to complete 5 years unpaid training at university in the first place to become a Dr. It is public money but so is the £700 000 or £5 million a year paid to Chris Moyles or Johnathan Ross ! Get with the real world or GPs will opt to leave the NHS and work privately like dentists. We certainly won't be seeing patients at an average cost of £14 per consultation if this happens !

BJW, Manchester,

Where do you get these figures??? This is not take home pay or even gross this is pay to the practice to look after patients. Yes GP's are paid well but then again aren't accountants, Stockbrokers etc etc. Do they get daily abuse both verbal and physical, do they have someones life in their hands everyday?? I think not, is it not time the government gave the public a correct version of how general practice is run and what happens. Such as staff budgets being cut, no uplifts given on any budget for the last 2 years and yet more and more work being expected from them. The increase in patients from abroad which need to be registered and have high needs and extra time required and the increase in public demand s and wants and the lack of general funding to assist and help patients. Please think about people not only GP's but nursing staff, practice managers and administrative staff who work extremely hard every single day of the year without a thank you ar any form of appreciation.

Sarah , Bradford, England, West Yorkshire

£100,000 per year for a GP is ridiculous! However, as is human nature, once they have it they will fight to keep it.

JT Staunton, Worcester,

Comments have implied that the figure "84% of people happy with opening hours" is dubious. It was a government survey carried out in GPs' surgeries. I suppose you might say it was biased as they were people who had got appointments. You might wonder whether people were afraid to express discontent for fear of offending their doctor, though it was anonymous. However, it was ordered by the government and the questions were biased in the direction of suggesting that respondents should be disatisfied.
I believe the gov agenda is to have employed GPs who they could gag. Do they really believe that a career GP working shifts with a six month contract will be more efficient and better for patients than someone who has a long standing relationship with them? I doubt it. There doesn't appear to be a real outcry by patients regarding opening opens. Therefore it seems reasonable to assume the real concern is unstated.

Siobhán Stapleton, Taplow, UK

Is it the same Dept of Health that misled the media with exagerated GP salaries that now claims GP are working 7 hours less a week than in 1993? It is unfortunate that Patricia Hewitt's apology for that "mistake" the week afterwards received hardly any press coverage. I am a GP in South Wales, like most of my colleagues I have greatly increased the amount of work I do during the working week to meet the access and quality targets. I currently work approximately 65 hours a week far more than when I did out of hours work. The out of hours shambles is because the Governement underestimated the work being done out of hours by GP's and has opted for multi-national private providers which have failed to deliver .Somehow the Govt feels this underperformance can be blamed on GP's who do not run this service.Ironically the government see these private providers as the future of the health service and many of us feel that their continual spinning against GP's is to facilitate this.

alistair bennett, swansea, wales

"GPs have the best IT systems in the world" - Shahzad, Doncater, UK.

Your opening statement immediately discredits the rest of your argument. I worked at a surgery doing data entry and data cleansing a year back, and I can categorically tell you that their IT systems are above average at best.

Pete, Cov,

If the government try and steamroller this through I envisage the mass simultaneous resignation from the NHS by GPs - it was what GPS were in favour of before their new contract was negotiated if they were not allowed to drop the 24hrs 365 days responsibility that they had up till that point.
Yes most GPs had a large pay increase 3 years ago - because their performance was much better than the government had predicted - again they were not listening to what the profession was telling them about what they were already doing. It was essential to keep doctors choosing general practice as a carreer choice over more lucrative hospital specialities with large private income potentials (the last few years have shown real terms pay cuts for the profession - something which the government neglects to say)
Try and steamroller it through and NHS general practice will go exactly the same way as NHS dentistry.

P hedges, Liverpool,

Another bout of GP bashing. Those greedy lazy fat cats should roll up their sleeves to provide routine care on supermarket opening times?This is neither necessary nor possible with the existing manpower. The government wasted £11million on a poll which showed that more than 84% of the populace was happy with GP opening hours. If current GP income exceeds £100k then this is a result of a contract the DoH entered into in 2004 which set tough new standards for care of chronic diseases, which GPs met enthusiastically, by far exceeding the government's expectations. Over the last two years these standards have been toughened considerably with an accompanying decrease in pay. The hamster wheel of General Practice is being turned faster and faster with decreasing rewards.A brilliant strategy to keep a workforce happy and highly motivated. And now they are appointing a plumber to rewire primary care? Bring back Frank Dobson.

Ulrich Pfeiffer, Liverpool, UK

If Mr Johnson thinks more doctors are needed in poorer areas, he might turn his mind to TRAINING them! The universities are producing more UK doctors than ever, but they won't be GP's in the poorer areas if they have to follow the droves now in Australasia and elsewhere trying to get the training needed! Expansion of the training provision is needed immediately!

This of course does not only apply to GP's. If not corrected there will be major difficulties in the specialties too and soon!

The MMC/MTAS disaster rumbles on and hasn't been corrected. Review upon review just obfuscates. Until its perpetrators are disciplined the problem will recur. What is needed is decisive and informed management, not political hoo-hah, Mr Johnson!

David L. Cox, Loggerheads, UK

It is ridiculous to say that people who are 'sick' wouldnt be working anyhow- how sick do you have to be to try to look after yourself??/
To have an appointment time is essential for people who are sick- and have a busy worklife!

Annegret, london,

I don't think this is about the worried well who want to see their doctor at 7pm about the cough they have had for a week already.

I think it is about keeping people with a serious chronic health condition in full-time work, and paying taxes, rather than on benefits. I have type 2 diabetes, and work full-time in the city. This generates loads of hospital, blood, eye tests, doctors visits, flu jab etc, at least one per month. If I had the take 1/2 day or 1 day off for each appointment, my management would certainly have a sense of humour failure. Fortunately my doctor has two 7am surgeries per week, so I can keep the visibility of my medical condition within reasonably bounds. This benefits everybody, and I am personally very grateful. You can't get the disabled, or the parents of disabled children, back into work, unless there is more flexibility about appointments, and the ability to do some of the work out-of-office hours.

Jane, London, UK

It is a thankless job as a GP and if it is a customer driven society than what about paying for the health services. In the long run it is unsustinable to run a service where most of the public only expects the govt to deliver without actually contributing.

harry, derby, UK

I live in Germany and I've never heard of one doctor - GP or specialist - opening on a Saturday or Sunday. Why should they? Everyone else is meant to work five days a week. I've worked in a shop - yes, we worked Saturdays, but we still got another day off a week (besides Sunday).

As far as I know, there has never been any outcry for doctors to open on Sundays here in Germany. Some open a bit longer on one weekend to handle certain workers but I think they would go on strike if they had to do what is being suggested in the UK.

And as far as I know, no-one's ever died.

It must be the bad time management then of the people that believe others have to accommodate them because they can't get their act together.

Oh, and in Germany, you can make appointments weeks in advance if you like.

Tina, Duesseldorf, Germany

As a translator, I work late into the evenings and often weekends (three in a row recently). Right now, I'm taking a week off to recover from the symptoms of overload. I can't breathe, I'm climbing the wall, my hands are shaking, my stomach is a mess, etc. And all because stupid managers cannot manage their time well enough to leave sufficient time for the translator to do the job in reasonable time. No, we've got to do it in less than half the time than is normal - I know... I've calculated this. I don't see why I should suffer. One I've recovered, I'll be putting a surcharge on weekend work. 50% more. Why should I work 5 days a week and all weekend? Is it going to improve my quality? Nope. Is it good for my health? No. And who's going to pay for me when I get ill? Who's going to look after me? I'm freelance and single. When do I get a chance to go out and meet a potential partner?

Most ailments can be sorted out in office hours. For emergencies, there are the emergency services.

Tina, Duesseldorf, Germany

Doctors like nurses like to be seen as part of the caring profession, when in reality the only ones they are caring about is themselves.
Excessive increases in pay coupled with a reduction in working hours by doctors are putting the nations health at risk.
In GP practices doctors delegate many of their duties to practice nurses and others who get a much lower salary. The out of hours help line was to your own GP but now lower paid nurses handle these lines. Pharmacists are now doing work that was done by doctors.
Laurence Buckman should check his facts. My practice was open in the evening through the 50's, 60,s and 70's.
The truth is doctors only care about filling their pockets with the taxpayers’ money.
The government is the paymaster they should not be asking GPs to be open all hours, they should be telling them to.

Jim Gilmer, Clydebank, Dunbartonshire

Resistance to need because it wasnt part of the National Health System when it was formed is a poor argument. The NHS has to move with the times.
I would be pleased if record keeping were more accurate in hospitals and doctors' surgeries. If they need time to be able to do that, then Saturday mornings and evenings is when it might be fitted in with a doctor's day.
All we hear nowadays is cut backs & I believe cut backs are taking place between Drs' Practices & Primary Care Trusts by agreement in persuit of efficiency that is called for by government. Asking the patient to draw a line under inefficiency is just not on when quality of life is at stake.
A patient cant predict when they are going to be ill. The service should be to meet all eventualities. If that means the government has to provide more walk in medical advice centres then that's what must be if the GPs cannot give more hours.
I think people do go to GPs for silly things, when the local pharmacy could help.

Janet, IOW,

My local GP surgery opens at 9 am in the morning and shuts its doors at 6 pm in the evening with no weekends at all! If you need to see a doctor you have to call them at 8.30 am and you will be very lucky if you get to see a doctor on that day. The receptionists will very millitantly inform you all the doctors are fully booked for that day and you will have to call the next day to see the doctor. When you ask them to book an appointment for you they tell you all the prebookable appointments have already been taken up. It is a nightmare to call them to see a doctor. It is shocking to say the least! I have had so many problems with the surgery I am registered with since June this year that I had to resort to my PCT three times and get things sorted out. The receptionists are rude, they have made numerous errors with my name, my appointments, my repeat prescriptions that everytime I had any dealings with these people left me tearfull and disgusted.

Joshna Sind, loughton, essex

I find it absolutely ridiculous that in order to see a GP I have to take time off work. I work very long hours as a solicitor from 8 am to 5.30 and sometimes late. It is impossible for me to see a Doctor unless it is during my working hours. As a result of that I very rarely go to the doctor and often leave such things longer than I should. I have to be flexible by way of weekend appointments, home visits and late or early appointments to fit around other working people. I cannot see how 8 out of 10 people could possibly be happy with a situation whereby they have to take time off work to see a GP. A point is raised that Drs feel that they should not have to work weekends because accountants don't. That is not a broadly analogous profession and an accountant will often be available if you pay him or her to be. The point is that the market is consumer led and currently the arrangements for seeing a GP aren't consumer led. Even a few hours on a saturday would be helpful.

Shelley, London,

if he has time to sort out this kinda stuff, could he not arrange that i can get to see an NHS dentist, in office hours, before we head for the "patient will see you now doctor"

Peter Gregory, Skipton,

In response to Sarah Wheatley: Just as a matter of interest how much do GP's earn and how many hours do they work in Australia? Am I not right in saying as a patient you pay to see your GP?

al, dorset,

I don't know which is worse, the incompetence of this governmen or the self-serving attitiude of G.P.s as represented by their 'union', the BMA.
Survey after survey has shown that they are being paid a lot more and working less. It is ludicrous that primary care givers work 'office hours'. It should not be beyond the wit of these highly educated professionals to have some sort of rota system , particularly within several group practices, to provide proper cover for much longer opening hours and emergency cover outside those hours.

Lily, Truro,

My Doctor used to have Sun. morning surgery, but apparently had to stop a couple of years ago! Hope it'll come back!

MB, Manchester,

What use are GP's if they are only interested in money/

What happened to the dedicated professional GP?

If it wasn't for the out of hours home visits by my GP I would not be writing this now.

I would have died in an overworked casualty department as many unfortunte Britons do every day.

This country is governed by the most incompetant idiots that have walked the face of planet earth.

Alan Bond, lancaster, england

"Family doctors will be asked to work evenings and weekends"..............and then baby bear said "who's been eating my porridge?"

Andrew Renaut, Associate Professor of Surgery, Brisbane,

This is ridiculous. Hospital doctors work nigths and weekends for about half the salary of GPs and you don't see them whining about it. GPs have exploited the system and taxpayers' money and have focused on making money for as little work as possible. They should be ashamed, and the BMA, being represented by GPs are obviously going to say that the current system works best. It's more money in their pockets for little contribution towards the public's need.

Heath Legg, London,

The analogy made by the BMA's GP Committee chairman is totally disingenious. Accountants are not paid out of the public purse and their service does not directly affect one's health/life. As the experience of other countries shows, a 24 hour service is attainable and NOT linked to pay.

Gideon Aranzi, London,

Vets are professionals and they offer a 24hr service 365 days a year for a third of the salary that GP's receive. much better to be a sick dog than a sick person in the UK

jo, blandford,

I am a single-handed GP doing all my own on-call. I am on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for weeks at a time. In emergency any of my patients or the numerous tourists that I see are welcome to my services. I STILL will never go back to offering routine appointments on Saturday Mornings or late evenings.
Firstly, I have attendance figures going back for 24 years. I can tell you exactly who saw me and why, every Saturday morning in that time. Nobody really needs or wants such opening hours and I can prove this for my practice. Secondly, in common with most GPs the services I DO offer can only continue if I remain sane.

Maureen Douglas, Isle of Mull,

But Mr. Buckman (last para of article), if you try to make an appointment to see your doctor in order to either organise your work and/or get someone to drive you there, you cannot make an appointment more than two days ahead!! Something to do with the target of seeing a patient within 48 hours, stops you planning ahead.

My neighbour is 92 years old, is never visited by the doctor, she has to go to them, so she has to get a niece to come up from the coast to take her there which is why she wants to make an appointment some days ahead. Yes, I do take her sometimes but she doesn't like putting me out and having to have time off work.

Doctors earn enough, let them do some extra work.

And don't get me started on the NHS Helpline, my granddaughter nearly died of pneumonia. Luckily by 7.30 am the shift changed and I got someone who was qualified who told me to take her to Accident & Emergency.

Christine in hayes, Hayes, Middlesex, England

Mr Buckman said t.... “No other professional operates a weekend service. If I have to see my accountant, I have to take a morning off work,” ...

But I bet he gets paid anyway, unlike the self-employed and other workers who have to be there on the job doing it.

Alasdair MacLeod, Rayleigh, UK

How long will it be until getting an NHS GP will be as likely as getting an NHS dentist ??

Elena, Birmingham, UK

"Goverment source" should be better informed about opening hours of GP surgeries which is 08:00 till 18:30every weekday.

m.brugman, Stevenage,

I'm really at a loss as to why this access thing is obsessing the DOH so much.
Has anybody asked the public if that is what they want? Has anybody worked out what it will cost? GPs don’t like being bullied or having the private sector waved at us as a lever to make us do what GB wants.Why do they(DOH) dislike GPs in England so much?
Government's own survey of GPs services, which cost £11 million and found that almost all patients were satisfied with their GPs. The survey found that fewer than one in 10 people want their GP surgery to open on weekday evenings or weekends, and that 84 per cent of people were satisfied with existing hours.

Unless the rest of the NHS opens OOH what is the point of GP surgeries opening. Many will have to come back during the day anyway for investigations, therapies etc

Kailash Chand, Manchester, manchester

I'm a professional and I work evenings and weekends and holidays and birthdays etc etc etc.

My working life has become much busier since the withdrawl of out of hours GP services not to mention much more stressful.

What do I do?

I'm an Ambulance Paramedic.

Mr Buckman?

James Pirie, Lochinver, Sutherland

Why is it so difficult for GPs and their office staff to work till say 8 pm at night and at weekends when this is routinely required of checkout operatives and other low-paid supermarket staff? There has never been any outcry over this, yet supermarkets at one time shut at 6 pm. They changed to accommodate the public and the staff had to put up with it or leave.

K Hall, Hitchin,

I still fail to see why the NHS cannot simply permit people to register with a GP near to their place of work. Provided money follows patients, it will work out. Instead patients are made to go to where the GPs are. No wonder the system does not work.

And doctors are not like other professionals (who do work evenings and weekends if one pays enough). First they are paid by the state and more crucially, one often cannot put off a visit.

JS, Cambridge,

Aren't we all missing something fundamental here. Should we disrupt the NHS by demanding to see a Doctor on routine matters at night or weekends or should we demand Business allows employees time off to see their Doctor inworking hours.
Should routine health care be done in work time or family time.
Is this a family friendly government or a business friendly government?
I think I know which option Would be healthier for us.

Sean King, Buxton, DErbyshire

I don't have a problem with the opening hours, but I **STILL** cannot book a appointment in advance, even after the previous PM told us all on question time that this was unacceptable and it would be fixed.

We are forced to play phone lottery first thing in the day to win an appointment on the day , if you don't phone early enough then you fail the lottery and have to play again tommorow. God help anyone who actually works for a living and will either be travelling or in a meeting when the phones open for the daily game.

Steve, Leighton Buzzard,

Come on GPs Open on saturday morning and close the surgery Wednesday afternoons.

Brian Kelsey, Redditch, UK

To echo Peter - where are the hours going to be found so that evenings and weekend opening can be fitted in? My husband works 9-6.30 most days with no staturory lunch hour or breaks in between and often comes home with enough paperwork to fill two hours of evening work.

It is not just the case of opening the surgery - if blood tests have to be done - then the Hospital labs will need to be open and the staff paid to run them, as well as the transport staff needed to take the bloods and other tests to the lab. Will the government increase the monies available to surgeries topay for reception staff and the practice nurses to work on saturdays and evenings too?

And lastly isn't this a breach of contract? Contracts are agreed between two parties not unilaterally imposed by one. Migration to another country looks ever more attractive.

Mandy , Co Durham, UK

to Sarah Wheatley of Australia

this is of course exactly what used to happen before the contract was brought in by the government, however a great many of these GP cooperatives subsequently were not awarded the contracts to provide out of hours cover in the way you describe. They have now been wound up in a lot of areas.

and electronic records.........well that is a whole other £18,000,000,000 question!!

james, loughborough,

This episode has left a nasty smell behind. The government has been shown to be incompetent and spendthrift. But the real losers are the doctors and the BMA who have been depicted as greedy, self-serving, and unconcerned with patient welfare. The absurd claim by the BMA's Dr Buckman that 80% of patients are happy about this will tend to reinforce this negative impression, and impress few. It is good to see that the government is now trying to right the situation, however.

Roger Pearse, Ipswich,

I think all civil servants should work 24 hours. That way we may get the equivalent work from them to the day most GP's already give in their 'normal' work hours. While we are at it, lets make all professionals work 24 hrs, just in case someone wants to contact them at 2.00am. Bit inconvenient having to wait until 9.00am, don't you think?

More feather bedding and bleeding hearts for the proletariat!

cwillnic, Cardiff,

Rodney Barker- GPs do home visits between 11- 3pm.

Or do you want to stop these. I, for one don't want any individual GP to work more than 50 hours per week an treat me.
Just because they are not seeing patients every hour of the day, does not mean they are playing golf. When would you like them to chase test results, write referral letters, letters on patients' behalf to others? Maybe they should do it in public view so you know they aren't playing golf.

Jia, London,

Well, don't Doctors have a life outside of the Surgery? Don't they have families, which include children, partners or aged parents whose needs have to be attended to? They may have to travel some distance to fullfil these responsibilites, so a weekend could be the only time they have to do this.
The result will be that Doctors start cutting their working times, dropping days and have the reverse effect than the Government intends (as usual).
I am a dentist, and I bet this comes our way sooner or later.

David Keats, London, UK

No emotion, please. If the Government wants to suggest changes to a contract to which it is a party then let it talk to that other party - the BMA. There may be a solution, but when each side denigrates the other we are unlikely to find it. What is needed is less propaganda and more straight talking between those who, let's face it, both want the best for the British Public within the constraints of people, time and cost.

Mike, Gloucester,

It is hardly surprising that GPs with incomes often in excess of £100,000 are prepared to sacrifice £6000 to opt out of providing out-of-hours cover. Which of us wouldn't. But then they are supposed to stand by the Hippocratic oath which in turn does not apply to the chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee's accountant.

Simon Marshland, Bath, UK

It was this incompetent government that gave GPs a massive pay hike, with a cut in cover.

Not sure who the 8 out 10, they asked. Most people I know, have to go to work. If I have a health issue, it takes nearly a week to see the GP, through the GP appointment, taking time off work. By which time am typically better, through advice from chemist and Internet Searches. Its no wonder the Ambulance servicies get called out so often and the A&E departments get full.

My dad had a nasty health scare during the weekend, and got 4 different answers from different NHS direct Telephone cover
doctors. It is very worrying.

When you do get to see a doctor, you only get a cursory 10 minutes. I wooudl have though a throrough check up, once every ten years would be a sensible preventative health. My Car gets better checkup at years MoT.

The GP service in this country is dire and a total mess. This Incompetent government needs to sort out the GP performance and service.

Ronald Squire, Surbiton, Surrey

I agree that GPs should work evenings and weekends and think it should also be extended to areas such as physiotherapy. I waited six months to get an appointment for physiotherapy and the only time they could offer was 2.30pm on a Monday afternoon (which I couldn't get off work to attend). Why do I bother paying National Insurance when I can't use the service and end up having to pay for private treatment in the evening anyway? Let GPs and others work evenings and weekends and, if necessary, let them have days off in lieu during the 'working' week. It's common sense.

IPM, Belfast,

On pay, just remember that the increase for GPs was for achieving quality based targets, the long term aim being to improve care and reduce hospital admissions so the pay increases should be justifiable and self funding. Why are GPs criticised continually for being paid more because they have achieved the improvements they were set? Where else but in the public sector would such nonsence occur?

The new contract has given a number of baby boomers like me a new lease of life, more job satisfaction, and time with my family, although day time work is more intense. No more am I unfit to drive, never mind see patients, the morning after a night on call. Expect retirements to rise and more part-timers if GPs are pushed towards longer working hours again.

BernieB, Southampton, Hants

The problem in Britain is that the concept of service hasn't fully caught on.
Laurence Buckman's statement above confirms this.

His mission statement would be:

Doctor's time is important - your time is not
important.
Doctor's job is important - your job is not
important.
You will queue in discomfort until I dain
to see you.
And you will be ill at my convenience.

Dave Sommerville, Cardigan,

I am a GP and, like almost all GPs locally have appointments available from 8.30am until 6pm Mon to Fri. Most of my working patients either work in the town or in the two nearby cities which are 30 mins drive from here.
Most GPs also already work in the evenings but on admin work . For example, those of us involved in teaching junior doctors have to get together to plan teaching etc. I work one 15 hour day almost every week. Previously it was difficult to get to these meetings because some of us would be on call.
I don't reject the idea of working later in the evening. However there are some possible problems. I can't work on my own. I need receptionists and nurses with me. Staff may also have young families and would find this difficult. What about our security working in health centres at night? The biggest problem will be ensuring these appointments are available to workers. Some patients book appts every week even when they are not ill. How do we save appts for the employed?

Dr Morag Martindale, Blairgowrie, Perthshire

GPs have the best IT systems in the world, and hospitals fall so far short they appear prehistoric. Yet, no solution has been designed for records to follow the GP. In fact, not even PCT-run out of hours providers have access to electronic records, so OOHs care is simply handing back responsibility to the GP and making the patient see a health professional twice in most cases.. the proverbial 'go back and see your GP during the week'. We work harder than we have done, our training standards have risen by leaps and bounds since 2002. And if consultants do not provide out-of-hours surgeries when they are employees and not contractors of care, why should we provide the same? And when we were doing a great job at it, it was the government who decided to take over rather than increase funding and efficiency within existing co-operatives. Across the board, GPs are the best value per patient, costing around £22-£26 compared to private providers' £30+. So don't knock us over our earnings

Shahzad, Doncater, UK

BMA complaining accountants don't work evenings and weekends:

1 - You must be joking! For the "money focussed "profession £100k is only acheiveable by a very small minority who will have sacrificed there home life almost completely for work, just look at the male/female divide in accountancy between high paid and low paid jobs. To be fair most (large) practices are desparate to try and keep female staff - its just the job is so demanding and anti-social they normally can't.

2 - A national average salary for a qualified accountant is more like £40k. And with that there is no job security or pension.

3 - At least doctors will be able to plan which evenings and weekends they work - and be paid for it, unlike your average accountant.

4 - (Practice) Accountants are probably the most customer focused profession - how often will your accountant say "sorry I'm too busy to see you" or arrange an appointment for 10.30 and finally see you at 11.30.

Accountants are paid by taxes.

Benjamin , Gloucester,

A GP gets paid £52 per to look after each patient,yes £52 whether the patient sees the doctor every day or never.
the average patient now sees their doctor 6 times a year i.e £8-50 per consultation
and for that princely fee the government wants a weekend and night service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it costs at least £60 a year to insure your cat or dog and you still have to pay extra for treatment.

the british public pay for plumbers,tv engineers,football season tickets and plasma screen tv etc etc but wants a weekend and out of hours gp service on £52 per

get real

charlie simenoff, manchester, uk

It's all well and good saying that GP's should work unsociable hours because they are so well paid. But what about the receptionists, nurses, cleaners etc. that would also have to be present to run the service - they get far too little to be expected to give up their timein this way.

Karen, Coventry, UK

Creative doctors could double up to share office space and equipment by extending office hours to two shifts to allow early morning (pre-work) and early evening (after work) visits. I wish they would do it here. Another alternative is for doctors to open later and stay later.

Emma H., Ottawa, Can.

My wife (who lived for 31 years in Australia) can confirm the Australian system as oulined in Sarah Wheatley's letter.

What a good change this would make to our sytem in which GP's are not working now for most of the day - and only from Monday to Friday. However, before any change is proposed, the views and opinions mut be sort of practice managers and their clerical and administrative colleages who sucessfully
keep their employer doctors away from their patients as often as possible leaving surgeries invariably and virtually
empty; simultaneously appointments are difficult for patients to comeby for about a week or more.

Rodney Barker, Gainsborough, England U.K.

I really don't understand what the fuss is about. If you're sick enough to need a doctor you shouldn't be going to work anyway.

Alec Wilson, London, UK

As a Paramedic working in Central London I go to so many patients who complain about their GP's opening hours, or lack thereof. Between the hours of 9am and 6pm, patients in central london struggle enough to book an appointment with their GP and outside of these hours the only option left for some people is to call an ambulance or present to A&E, which adds a greater strain on the system.

To dispatch an ambulance to a call costs around £500, so if you count up all the unneccary journeys we make each year, driving pretty fast to reach a government 8-minute target to reach patients in, possibly crashing or causing a crash on the way - then see why the ambulance service employees are angered at the reduced working hours that GPs work.

Then the issue of salary arises. GP = more than £100k. Paramedic = around the £26k mark. Hardly fair seeing as we work 24 hour shifts, make as many decisions in some cases about patient care, administer drugs etc etc etc

Ben, London, UK

The Government argument is that this is very inconvenient for all patients (despite a survey saying 84% of patients were happy with the opening hours).

Now it is clear that this is an attempt to disempower the profession by using media spin against doctors.

The reasons for this are clear, NHS is a vote winner, and disempowering the profession gives the DoH Orwellian control over service provision and therefore cost, (ironically irrespective of patient benefit.) They moan about GP pay, despite arranging for them to earn these salaries. They moan about out of hours provision despite arranging the contract for GPs this way.

The vacuous DoH were arrogant when drawing up the GP contract, failing to accept that the pay related health targets they were implementing were already being achieved by GPs, for free. The Government believed its own spin of the golfing doctor who did little actual work. GPs are working as hard as ever, but the Government is failing and needs a scapegoat.

matt, london,

I would be happy with a 9-5 Monday to Friday surgery hours,but at our surgery where there are 4 doctors practicing the surgery is open for patients from about 9-11am and again in the afternoon from about 3-5pm with one doctor available until 6pm. It is very rare to have to wait less than 4 or 5 days to be seen by a doctor,if you are almost dying you may get to see a nurse earlier who may or may not refer you for an emergancy appointment (between 5pm and 6pm) I would love to know what our doctors do between 11am and 3pm. I have also never had to wait longer than my appointment time to see my doctor and usually get to see him earlier than my appointed time. Surely this suggests that our doctors are not rushed off their feet and surely could squeeze in a couple more patients, maybe then we could see a doctor whilst we are still ill.

Rodney Barker, Gainsborough, England U.K.

This whole sorry affair is the result of politicians meddling.

Pehaps it is time that all politicians carry a health warning as being dangerous to heath.

Charles Horne, Chichester,

For doctors to compare themselves with accountants is outrageous anywhere in the world. Their willingness to keep themselves available to help patients 24X7 should be a precondition of being given access to medical training. If they want to be treated like accountants or or other 9-to-5ers, they should not have chosen a medical career. No doubt all doctors can't be expected to make themselves unfailingly available 24X7 but that's something the medical fraternity should work out themselves. In Calcutta, we experience daily the callousness of doctors brought up from infancy to regard the profession as a bottomless source of wealth, with no claim to the least aptitude for human sympathy without which, surely, neither doctors nor paramedics should be in the profession.

Monty Gosse, Calcutta, India

Mr Alan Johnson and all previous health secretaries as well as media mention about GP's earning £100,00 a year. A Career which takes at least 10 years to become GP and if at age of 55 with more than 20 years of experience, if one doesn't earn 100k, it will be fault of a system. No other profession requires that much sacrifice in number of years before you can work independently.

If government wants GP's to open over weekends then they can contract to private providers, how can they ask GP's to work free! Just because its monopoly employer!

jon sangtani, london, UK

At a weekend what would it cost to call out a plumber , solicitor, accountant for seven hours at a weekend? The government cocked up with this contract and there is also the working time directive. Tired doctors are not safe doctors. If the public want out of hours services then they must expect to pay the market rate.

J.M.Rodriguez, Bradford, United Kingdom

The Government generated created this contract. More than 80% of the public are happy with the service provided. If an out of hours service is to be provided by a patient's own GP then that Gp will not be available during normal working hours. THe limit of hours is 48 that can be safely worked. There are not enough GPs to provide the service the public wants. It is no longer safe for doctors to work through the night and do surgeries the following day. Patients can have quality care 9 to 5 or demand that the Goverment provides more doctors to fill the gap.

J.M.Rodriguez, Bradford, United Kingdom

The Labour government was the driving force behind the contract, which removed out-of-hours-work from the GP contract.

Some GPs cannot do this work if they want to.

GPs now work more intensively than ever in-hours. The solution provided by GP co-operatives, which was damaged by the new contract, may be difficult to restore.

Peter, Cardiff,

In Australia we have had 24 hour clinic and they are very successful. If more GP's pooled resources and also took on more trained staff they could run their surgeries 24hrs. This takes a huge strain off the A&E departments for minor incidents and illness, can act as a triage also and means that those who work unsociable hours and who cant get to a surgery during the day can actually have regular health checks etc without taking time off work.

I think GPs should stop whining about NOT working out of hours and see this as an opportunity to improve their reputations and actually meet the needs of communities.

In Australia you dont need to register with just ONE GP but I think this can STILL work here now that we have most GP's on computer based record keeping. (Your records should now follow you electronically!)

Sarah Wheatley, South Wales,

I would be interested to know how the question in the survey was phrased, and what percentage of the working population actually got to take part in this survey.

jo newman, stevenage,

As an accountant I regularly work weekends and evenings and some of these events are regular (quasi appointments) at quarter and year end. Why shouldn't doctors.

imj, Abu Dhabi, UAE