The chair of a local medical committee in the north of England has written an open letter to GPs thanking them for "the daily work and grind you do" after prime minister Theresa May laid the blame for the current crisis in the NHS at the door of general practice.
On Friday, as hospital accident and emergency departments around the country were struggling to cope with a surge in demand, a Downing Street spokesperson said it was "increasingly clear that a large number of surgeries are not providing proper out of care".
May said this was forcing patients to attend A&E instead and that GP surgeries must offer services from 8am–8pm seven days a week to take the pressure off hospitals.
With such solidarity and support we can do anything, thank you. #WorkingTogether for a #HealthyCumbria https://t.co/K7YzQ68rzU
But GPs, many of whom already offer out-of-hours care, have said this is impossible without recruiting more doctors to boost their already understaffed workforce.
"Threats and bullying on such a scale and gravity as happened in the media this weekend are sickening," Dr Peter Weeks, chair of the Consortium of Local Medical Committees in Lancashire & Cumbria, which represents 1,800 GPs and 300 practices in the region, wrote in the open letter.
"To blame an overburdened, struggling, understaffed workforce for the failings of a system is shameful," he added.
Letter to all GPs in Cumbria from LMC Chair @peterjweeks. @CNagpaul @rvautrey @DavidGWrigley
In the letter, Dr Weeks listed the ways in which GPs went "the extra mile" to care for patients:
Thank you for the daily work and grind you do.
Thank you for the visit you did on your way home at 8 O'Clock.
Thank you for the extra mile you went to make sure the patient knew you cared.
Thank you for taking those medications to the patients because it was the most common sense thing to do.
Thank you for all the paperwork you plough through.
Thank you for all the work you do which isn't even yours from secondary care agencies because it is in the best interest of the patient.
Thank you for all the care you give in out of hours, giving a 24/7 365 day per year service.
Weeks also praised services provided by local GPs when the region was devastated by flooding at the beginning of 2016.
Dr David Wrigley, a GP from Carnforth in Lancashire, told BuzzFeed News it was "fantastic" to see Weeks's letter. "It recognises all the hard work that GPs are
doing and all the extra miles we’re going to deal with patients and
support the NHS," he said.
"It’s not something we usually see or read, so to see it written down plainly is really welcome off the back of the government trying to blame us for the crisis in the NHS, which is all due to the politicians failing."
Wrigley said GPs are already "snowed under" and often working 12–14 hour days, and that staff shortages in the profession needed to be addressed before it would be possible to increase the level of service offered.
"Doctors are not wanting to be GPs at one end, and at the other end, they're retiring early, or they’re burnt out and just leaving the profession," he said.
This is just lovely from @nwlmcs & @peterjweeks - everyone needs a letter like this #NHSCrisis https://t.co/Lw2YJj9w9A
The current government has repeatedly pledged to recruit an extra 10,000 doctors in the NHS by 2020, but many working in the health service say they have yet to see this promise materialise.
"We’ve got a massive shortage of doctors and nurses, and you hear the government saying constantly that they’re recruiting more, but any NHS worker just laughs when they hear that, because it just doesn’t relate to anything in reality," Wrigley said.
He said it was "ludicrous" for May to suggest that services should be increased in the face of these staff shortages.
"Funding has been cut year-on-year to general practice, which leaves us in a precarious situation," he said. "If [May] wants us to open Saturday and Sunday then we’ll have to close Tuesday and Wednesday because we won’t have enough doctors and nurses. We’ve got to make a choice."
May's comments come at the time of particularly low morale in the health service.
"Morale is at rock bottom," Wrigley said. "When you hear the prime minister saying these things when you’re working your socks off, day-in-day-out for patients, if morale was low anyway, I think it’s subterranean now."
But Weeks's letter seems to have been a welcome boost to the profession around the UK.
"Please every GP reading, this applies to you too!" GP Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of General Practice, tweeted.
What a wonderful letter from @peterjweeks to all GPs in his area! Please every GP reading, this applies to you too!… https://t.co/2p6KIrSwct
Dr Zoe Norris, also an NHS GP, tweeted that "everyone needs a letter like this".
Arabella Onslow, a GP from Cumbria, also shared the letter on Twitter, writing: "With such solidarity and support we can do anything, thank you."
Read the full text of the letter below:
Thank you for the daily work and grind you do.Thank you for the visit you did on your way home at 8 O'Clock.
Thank you for the extra mile you went to make sure the patient knew you cared.
Thank you for taking those medications to the patients because it was the most common sense thing to do.
Thank you for all the paperwork you plough through.
Thank you for all the work you do which isn't even yours from secondary care agencies because it is in the best interest of the patient.
Thank you for all the care you give in out of hours, giving a 24/7 365 day per year service.
Thank you for coping with flooding and just getting on with it.
Thank you for being there when there should be so many more of you.
Thank you for being a dedicated professional who excels at their job in the most difficult circumstances, and working within the most challenging environment.
You are the NHS's most valuable asset and Cumbria NHS would fail within days without you. We know the pressures you are under, we know how hard you work in the most frustrating of times, we know you do it not for the money but because you actually do care.
Threats and bullying on such a scale and gravity as happened in the media this weekend are sickening. To blame an overburdened, struggling, understaffed workforce for the failings of a system is shameful.
Lack of resource, poor quality "111" service, constant reorganisation and negative press coverage – not to mention in Cumbria two failing acute trusts and all the local challenges we face, they are the real reasons.
So today, hopefully today a patient or colleague will thank you for some small thing and it will remind you why you do this job.
If things aren't good, please talk to a colleague, a partner, a Sessional GP Support Group, a peer or us at the LMC. The pressure is there and we all know that, so if we can support in any way, confidential mentoring, mental health support, or just a listening ear (all confidential), we are here.
Those who know me will realise my cultural limits, but here is a quote:
"You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something sometime in your life" – Sir Winston Churchill.
Please take good care of yourselves and each other.
Your humble and furious proud chair,
Dr Peter Weeks