NHS '˜terminally ill' claims Leeds GP

A senior LEEDS doctor has claimed the NHS is 'terminally ill' and stated that the morale of medical professionals is the lowest he has seen in his 33 year career.
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In an impassioned letter to the YEP Dr Peter Shevlin, a GP at Hawthorn Surgery in Lower Wortley, said that GPs across the country “are struggling to cope with falling funding, rising workload and staff shortages”.

Writing stricly in a personal capacity, the GP said: “I have been a doctor in the NHS for 33 years, and a GP in West Leeds for 27 years, and I have never seen staff morale, throughout the NHS, at such low ebb, or the service in such danger of collapse.

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“At my practice, I and my team feel these pressures every day, with an inexorable increase in workload and the fact that General Practice has become a catch-all and safety net for health and social problems that overworked and understaffed support services cannot cope with.

“The effects of falling funding (the truth) are myriad, but include not having enough time to deal with patients’ needs properly and therefore an inability to deliver the service we would wish to give them.

“I would like to retire in a little over two years but our best efforts at attracting a new partner have prove entirely fruitless.

“Our GP Registrar training post, as with many up and down the country, is vacant.

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“We (the medical profession and public) have betrayed an entire generation of junior doctors. They see their senior colleaguesleaving the NHS early and in their droves.”

“Your NHS in crisis? Unfortunately, this senior GP believes it is terminally ill.”

The letter comes as NHS Junior Doctors prepare for a further walkout next month as the dispute continues to escalate.

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