BMJ  2007;335:697 (6 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39350.516887.AD

Feature

Head to head

Should general practitioners resume 24 hour responsibility for their patients? No

Royal College of General Practitioners Wales, Cardiff CF10 4RU

Complaints about the care provided by out of hours services in the UK are growing. Roger Jones thinks that general practitioners should take back the role, but Helen Herbert believes their efforts would be better focused on improving current systems

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The question should not be whether general practitioners should take 24 hour contractual responsibility for their patients; rather we should be calling on primary care organisations to take creative and innovative action to engage providers, including general practices, to provide good local solutions. Several organisations have done this already so why not the rest? Access to good quality care should be the preserve of all, not just the lucky few.

The relinquishing of out of hours responsibility has led to accusations that general practitioners do not care about their patients. But it is precisely because we want the best care for patients that the change was made. Surely it cannot be in the interests of patients for doctors to work all day, be up most of the night on call, and then work through another full day in surgery. Sleep deprived people should not be making life threatening decisions. Lorry . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Articles

Summary of responses

Birte Twisselmann
BMJ 2007 335: 787-788. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Should general practitioners resume 24 hour responsibility for their patients? Yes

Roger Jones
BMJ 2007 335: 696. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Neimanis, I., Kaczorowski, J., Howard, M. (2009). After-hours services in capitation-funded primary care practice: Use and satisfaction. cfp 55: 1008-1009.e6 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Twisselmann, B. (2007). Summary of responses. BMJ 335: 787-788 [Full text]  

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