For the last couple of weeks I’ve been talking to the doctors at Milton surgery about the issue of proposed changes to their contract with the Government.

Essentially they’re faced with two issues. First their current funding is been cut by £15,444 per year, this is before you even consider the effects of inflation. This is after three years of no annual inflationary funding rise for the doctors or their staff which has effectively wiped out the much publicised funding rise in 2004.

There is no way that the surgery can weather this funding cut without some changes to services.

In addition the Government are now saying that surgeries should open in the evenings and at weekends to provide routine care. This would be in addition to the emergency care Dr Steward and Dr Hunt already provide working weekday evenings and overnights and Saturdays and Sundays on a rota for the emergency GP service at Camdoc.

Evening and weekend surgeries sound like great news for working people. The problem is that the additional funding the Government is offering to pay for this is barely enough to pay for the additional non-doctor costs, i.e. staffing, heat, light etc so the doctors would be expected to work on a Saturday for free.

The Government have stated that they will brook no dissent and if doctors do not accept this funding cut they will impose a much larger funding cut (on average £35,000 per GP practice) and invest the money in Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) services aka Polyclinics (e.g. Virgin healthcare supermarkets).

This is a disaster for those of us with long term medical conditions who value seeing the same GP each time we visit, someone we know and we trust, and who knows us and our problems before even looking at their notes. If you’ve got children or elderly relatives the same will apply for them too.

If you agree that this is bad news then there are things you can do:

• Write to our MP, James Paice (you can do so using WriteToThem if that’s easier).
• Sign the 10 Downing Street petition opposing these changes.
• Tell your doctors you support them.
• Tell your friends and relations about this – this doesn’t just affect Milton, this affects surgeries nationwide.