NHS Scotland to close all GP surgeries for two four-day periods over Christmas and Hogmanay

GPs all across Scotland will be closed from 6.00pm on Christmas Eve, re-opening from 29th December to 31st December, then closing for a second four day period from 1st January 2009.

Tim Davidson, head of winter planning for Scotland’s health boards says that they considered approaching GPs about providing some kind of service over the Christmas and Hogmanay break but rejected it. Why? Well, they felt people would find it ‘confusing’ if some GPs were open and others were not.

Why would it be confusing when the only GP that matters is your own and that one is either open or shut. So what’s confusing? It’s more likely to be anger-making to know of another GP surgery, not one’s own, which is open. Perhaps avoiding public anger was the real driver of the decision.

Anyway, the authorities are confident that NHS 24, the telephone helpline, will be able to fill the gap. The public might have a different view.

There is sparring between the two parties concerned in the decision. The British Medical Council says there are plenty of GPs willing to work the Christmas period but that NHS 24 and NHS Scotland are trying to save money. A spokesman says: ‘Our position is that they should be employing more doctors’. NHS Scotland is concerned only with saving the public ‘confusion’.

What is unedifying in this is that neither of these bodies has any real care for those they exist to serve. Each is pushing its own vested interest and using the public as no more than a card in their game strategy.

However -over these periods when the GP surgeries are closed, the key thing is that when someone feels unwell they should seek help at once, rather than wait for their familiar GP surgery to open again. Delay can lead to an avoidable need for hospitalisation. And if NHS 24 is slow and unhelpful, go to the nearest A&E without hesitation or apology.

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