GPs saw their earnings rise to £142,000 during the pandemic in a Covid pay boom, new data show. The Telegraph has more.
The official NHS figures reveal that as surgeries closed their doors to patients, routinely restricting face-to-face appointments, doctors’ incomes rose to unprecedented heights.
GP partners – who make up the majority of family doctors – saw average incomes rise by £20,000 to £142,000 in the 12 months after the first lockdown.
The 17% rise, the largest on record, came as the NHS moved to a system of “total triage”, with patients refused GP appointments in person unless they had a telephone consultation first.
Some of the extra money will have come from delivering the Covid vaccine rollout and because GPs were paid for tasks they no longer had to do during the pandemic.
On Thursday night, patients’ groups said the increase was “extremely difficult to justify” and would prove “incredibly irritating and distressing” to people who have struggled to see a GP.
It comes as GPs threaten industrial action over a contract that forces some practices to open on Saturdays. The vote was passed at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference earlier this summer, when doctors were urged to “channel our inner Mick Lynch”.
The statistics for England show that average incomes for all GPs, including salaried doctors, rose by 11% in the first year of the pandemic, increasing from £100,700 in 2019-20 to £111,900 in 2020-2021.
The NHS Digital figures are the average earnings per GP in England, regardless of the hours they worked, and include any private work.
Government research revealed that most GPs now work three days or fewer a week following a “substantial” fall in hours since the pandemic. The figures for 2021 showed 58.4% of family doctors working six half-day sessions or less – the equivalent of three days.
Earlier this year, figures revealed that public satisfaction with GP services had fallen to the lowest level on record. Under two-fifths of people were satisfied with the service from family doctors last year, according to the British Social Attitudes survey, the lowest proportion since it began in 1983.
Before the pandemic, around 80% of GP consultations took place in person. During the first lockdown that fell to as low as 47%, since when it has risen to 65%.
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It seems as if we are increasingly in desperate need of a new kind of renaissance that reaffirms talent, ability, excellence and the kind of values that are elevating.
It needs to be done confidently and unapologetically.
OF COURSE we need to be kind to those who aren’t as able. We’ need to be kind to everyone really. But to celebrate disability and biological deficiencies as things to be proud of is just self loathing and self destructive.
Being gay isn’t great. It means you won’t procreate which means you are an evolutionary dead end. Not good.
Being trans, same, but on top of it with an urge to self mutilate. Another evolutionary dead end.
Being autistic means you can’t relate to others as well. We are a social species. Less likely to procreate. If not a dead end, not the best of paths.
In a society that is barely producing half the babies required to sustain itself, we sure don’t need to celebrate all the things that are clearly evolutionary dead ends.
I wonder when the renaissance will begin.
I honestly don’t see the problem with not wearing shoes in the office. As long as your feet don’t stink I guess
Most shoes are bad for your feet. In carpeted offices, why bother wearing them? Let your feet spread, let them breathe.
People get wound up about the strangest things. We wouldn’t expect everyone to wear gloves, would we?
Next we’ll be told we have to cover our faces. Oh, wait…
Wandering around naked, obviously not. That would be a distraction from work
I am a great believer in keeping things simple and in the case of the clearly un-hinged Lydia X.Z. Brown I conclude that the correct course of action is to have this woman declared MAD. With that diagnosis out of the way she can then be locked up. Normal people should not have the clearly insane forced upon them.
I know a fair few people on the austistic spectrum and they are focused on being themselves, not “being autistic”, and don’t feel their autism defines them, they are neither ashamed nor proud of it, it’s just a fact, and like the rest of us they modify their behaviour to suit the occasion – they probably have to put more effort into this than non-autists because the world is mainly composed of non-autists. I have never heard any of them mention “Austistic Pride”. Some of them are concerned when people talk about “curing” autism and also concerned about pre-natal tests for autism leading to abortions and effectively eugenics – I think this is understandable.
Some good points, well said. I certainly hope they do not find a cure for autism, I have also known quite a few who would not want a cure, and I will qualify that by saying I believe that there are a lot of creative intelligent people who if analysed par se, would be on the autism spectrum. This constant search for a new minority identity to worship only increases the prejudices they wish to supposedly remove. I, for one, would not want a cure for what I was, to be what? Like them?
I would welcome the minority of one, where you are judged by who you are not what claque you wish to be associated with. Now there’s a thought.
Thanks. My fairly anecdotal, unscientific take on the “cure” business is that there are some disorders that look like autism that are unpleasant for the person with the disorder that may be triggered by dietary, environmental or medical intervention factors, which may be better “cured” or “prevented”, but that autism is fundamentally a way of being that is determined by brain wiring that is set during gestation or very early in life – after that I think it’s question of helping that person be well in themselves and with the world, just as we do for any child/adult, not “curing” them.
I would say, by how you conduct yourself, although maybe that’s sort of what you mean.
I think the exception though would be kids with autism who are profoundly disabled, non-verbal, behavioural issues due to their inability to effectively communicate as a result of their condition. As a parent you’d do anything to ensure you kid has as good a quality of life and reaches their full potential the same as all of their peers. There has been an awful lot of research into the effect of diet, especially the keto diet, in improving symptoms with kids, but I couldn’t cite anything off the top of my head. I think cleaning up one’s diet generally can have profound effects on many diseases and health complaints, including mental health.
What I will say though is that autism is way over-diagnosed now and I’m very wary of the methods used. It’s not like doctors run some blood tests or do an MRI and there’s your definitive proof and diagnosis. Something which relies heavily on questionnaires and observing behaviour as a diagnostic tool is seriously opening itself up to a significant margin of error and there is undoubtedly a lot of people walking around with an autism diagnosis ( ADHD is another over-diagnosed condition ) and they have no such thing. I’m very sceptical of the methods used because it inevitably is skewed towards getting a person ( usually a kid ) a label which will be with them for life and all the obstacles and prejudices this can result in, especially through their school years.
I would agree that there are quality of life issues that may be addressable through various interventions.
Can people just get on with being people – quirks, inclinations, colours, shapes, sizes etc etc – without having to be so bloody proud about it? All this constant need for affirmation reeks of egotistical and narcissistic BS spurred on by inclusivity fascists. What’s April 4th? People who haven’t got anything to be proud of pride day? April 5th? People with one leg slightly longer than the other Day?
Yes I agree. And another of my pet peeves is labelling of people, whether it be yourself or others. Okay, some may be acceptable, such as, ”I’m a Christian”, but I think, generally speaking, labelling is what people do to others when they wish to put them in a category, invalidate and/or control them. But humans are not rigid, we are not one-dimensional and we are subject to change over time. Labels are for jars not people.
So many people just seem to be looking for something to be offended by! Love of victimhood.
Drawing attention to differences, hardly seems the best way to avoid them becoming issues.
Nice one, April 5th. a good day to celebrate that we all are, perhaps, all quite the same, with one leg shorter than the other, for ever going around in circles before the epiphany of realising that perhaps one leg is longer than the other and consequently must identify with another group, equally going around in circles. As for me, I’m me, enjoy your day it’s all yours.
I’ve not really come across “anti-autistic prejudice”. I suppose it exists, but none of the autistic people I know have ever mentioned it. Smallish sample size though. Autists can come across as weird if you’ve not encountered them before, and that doubtless throws some people off balance for a while – not sure I would call that prejudice though.
I don’t really know what “anti-autistic prejudice” could be. But many people get seriously rubbed the wrong way when others always stick out because they’re othery.
To use an everyday example: When I stilled lived in Mainz, I made a habit out of standing at the bar in pubs after I had discovered that sitting at a table simply doesn’t work when you’re alone (not going into details about that here). This worked tolerably well for a while but ended with me being accused of “not doing anything except desiring to get onto the nerves of the bar maids” (I usually didn’t even talk to).
After I have moved to England, I thus decided to change my habits. Sitting didn’t work. And neither did standing because in addition to being accused of “wanting something” from perfectly random people I happend to be standing next to, it would also attract all kinds of would-be troublemakers. Hence, I decided to try walking next. I thus spend my evenings in a pub walking up and down the room while drinking a couple of pints (usually two, sometimes three). This still regularly gets me into quarrels and awkward conversations because apparently, that’s still not socially harmless enough although I have really no idea why. I’ve also specifically been thrown out of a pub once (The Monk’s Retreat in Friar Street, Reading) because – as the security non-lady told me – “You must not keep walking through the room looking at people!”
Does that count as prejudice?
I think the literal meaning of “prejudice” is to pre-judge someone on the basis of some random possibly non-relevant characteristic, which isn’t the same as reacting adversely to someone’s behaviour, which is what happened in the situations you describe. But “prejudice” now seems to mean “being horrid to people”.
Well, to stay within the example, lots of people stand at bars, sit at tables and sometimes, even walk through pub rooms without anyone considering that out of the ordinary because the “Don’t what this guy is up to, but I certainly don’t even want to know that!” assumption I’m usually being confronted with is missing.
Fair point – I think the way someone does something or just the way they look rubs people up the wrong way sometimes, and possibly autists are more likely to do that than others, on average. I don’t know if that’s prejudice as such – they probably don’t even know what autism is or who is autistic. I think it’s just being an a***hole – prejudice is that too, but a special form of it.
No, that’s not prejudice.
It’s not the best pub in Reading anyway, but next time I suggest you take a seat instead and watch the world go by.
There’s not going to be a next time. When someone sells a pint to me, I’ll expect that this means I may actually drink it provided I generally behave myself and mind my own business (for the record: This included a conscious effort at not looking at anyone in particular). When people have second thoughts about this after taking my money, I usually can’t stop them. But – once bitten twice shy – they’ll certainly never get any money from me again.
Since you go to the pub alone to stare at people instead of talking to them, staring being considered an act of aggression throughout the animal kingdom, why not drink at home?
I certainly don’t do that because I’m certainly unlike anything you (claim to) believe about me.
nobody sane is ever going to go around killing autistic people.
What a cute and innocent little girl you are, Steve. Never heard of nor can even imagine, people getting seriously violent towards social misfits on the grounds that “They are doing this intentionally to anger us!”. No, no, no, in Steve’s little beautiful world, stuff like this never happens. Unfortunately, it does happen in the real world. Because … guess what … not all autists are girls and violence against men (or boys) is perfectly acceptable if they’re “somehow weird” as they’re certainly up to no good then.
NB: This doesn’t mean people are actually planning to kill autists, it’s usually more like “Beat them up until the stop moving and then some.” I’ve always survived this so far.
This is just my opinion, but I can’t help noticing that you have told a lot of unusual stories on here about being victimised by Brits, always for no apparent reason, often in pubs, without ever mentioning anything that you might have done deliberately to provoke such reactions against you.
“While portraying oneself as a victim can be highly successful in obtaining goals over the short-term, this method tends to be less successful over time:
Victims’ talent for high drama draws people to them like moths to a flame. Their permanent dire state brings out the altruistic motives in others. It is difficult to ignore constant cries for help. In most instances, however, the help given is of short duration.
And like moths in a flame, helpers quickly get burned; nothing seems to work to alleviate the victims’ miserable situation; there is no movement for the better. Any efforts rescuers make are ignored, belittled, or met with hostility. No wonder that the rescuers become increasingly frustrated – and walk away.[4]”
There’s a whole website devoted to recording such Fake Hate Crime incidents:
fakehatecrimes.org
This is just my opinion, but I can’t help noticing that you have told a lot of unusual stories on here about being victimised by Brits, always for no apparent reason, often in pubs, without ever mentioning anything that you might have done deliberately to provoke such reactions against you.
But I wasn’t even writing about that. To tell a specific story: Once upon a time in the past, while I was living in Mannheim, I came up with a notion that it would be a good idea to travel to Heidelberg and spend some money drinking with the punks hanging out at the Neckar riverbank, presumably mainly because I felt lonely (I was a bit younger back than) and buying some people beer seemed like a good way to make a positive social contact with them. I thus did so and spent almost all of my remaining money on buying beer for these people. We sat there and drank for a while and ultimatively, I fell asleep. When I woke up again, still very drunk, my jacket and tobacco were gone (probably stolen by this very people but I didn’t think of this at that time). I thus started walking round in circles and asking everybody if he had perhaps seen my jacket or tobacco. I don’t know for how long this continued but ultimatively, some guy grew out of the floor in front of me and said something like “If you ever ask for your jacket or tobacco again, I’ll really beat the shit out of you!”. I didn’t consider this a threat I should capitulating to hence, I smiled at him and asked him “Did you perhaps see my jacket or my tobacco?”
– cut –
The next thing I remember was someone pulling the guy off me. I was heavily bleeding all over my face and everything seemed to be swollen there. I wiped the blood off my face, walked over to the same guy, smiled again and asked him “Did you perhaps see my jacket or tobacco?” and then turned round and left unmolested as this was clearly a dead end.
—-
BTW, I don’t remember ever asking you for help with anything and rest assured that I don’t ever will. I’m usually perfectly happy to be left alone.
There it is, another tale of woe.
The last thing you took issue with was me never telling what I might have done to provoke such a reaction. Thus, a story where the provocation on my part was pretty clear and one involving neither Brits nor pubs. That should have made a difference.
Apart from that, it just happened in this way and wouldn’t have happened had I been less completely socially clueless.
Truly autistic people don’t use or understand sarcasm.
Yet your comment to the author of this article was dripping with sarcasm of a particularly unpleasant kind.
“Truly autistic people don’t use or understand sarcasm.” I know people who are most certainly on the autistic spectrum who certainly do understand sarcasm and could use it if they felt it was needed. It may not come naturally but autists like everyone else are able to learn things that don’t come naturally.
The author made a particularly unpleasant statement.
The Neckar-story I recounted above could be construed as having been my fault because I shouldn’t ever have been so stupid to do this to begin with and shouldn’t deliberatley have tried to set the guy off after he had uttered a serious threat. But there have been other situations in the past. People are dangerous animals and they do kill or maim other people, even despite the person who’s the topic of the article probably never really encountered something like this.
I don’t know which pub you’re talking about (Reading again?) , but I’d have taken the guy’s warning seriously and given up on the tobacco. He did at least warn you rather than simply smacking you. Some people have a hair trigger.
It’s also not a great idea to get so you pass out amongst strangers and a responsible landlord should have woken you and asked you to go home.
There are some rather good pubs in Reading, where conversations are welcomed as long as you behave. I frequent one such pub on a regular basis and it’s one of my favourite places.
That wasn’t in a pub at all, it was roughly 30 years ago in the Germany when I had the insane (insofar my present understanding goes) idea of trying to throw a party for a bunch of open air punks I had never talked to before.
You live, you learn. At least you have a story. Hope you find a pub you enjoy.
I quite like the two Spoons in Reading which are still left because they’re large enough that individual people soon fade from everyone’s attention and in particular, The Hope Tap, because it sports four book shelves which apparently function as dumping for books people really don’t want to have at home anymore. This has enabled to find quite a few interesting things to read I wouldn’t ever have bought for myself. Particularly noteworthy would be an 1881 translation of Thukydides’ Peloponnesian War, this being the first book I ever read twice in a pub.
Also worth visiting: The Nags Head, The Ale House and the Castle Tap, although much smaller than the Spoon, all serve excellent Ales.
The second one is my personal favourite – small but with places to hide away should you wish and there are frequent games of chess if that takes your fancy.
Two people have downvoted this
I hope the two of you have better lives from now on because on current evidence you are missing the point
Well, what you say may be true of some, it may even be true of RW (but I doubt it and we are just speculating) but surely you’ve encountered people who are just unpleasant, violent dickheads who love to pick fights for not much reason, any excuse will do, and one excuse is someone looking or acting “different” and furthermore someone who perhaps doesn’t look that streetwise so an easy target? I’ve seen plenty in my lifetime.
Well, after reading Steven Tucker’s interesting article, and the Ethnic Oriental woman’s own “autistic” blog, my considered opinion is that she is completely faking it to get attention, sympathy, and never having to work for a living. It reminds me of the “Mental” section of Dominic Frisby’s brilliant send-up performance “Far Right”.
It’s as if she spent years looking up all the symptoms of autism, then added a few of her own to her repertoire. Give her an Oscar for acting ability.
“Munchausen syndrome (factitious disorder imposed on self) is when someone tries to get attention and sympathy by falsifying, inducing, and/or exaggerating an illness. They lie about symptoms, sabotage medical tests (like putting blood in their urine), or harm themselves to get the symptoms. Diagnosing and treating Munchausen syndrome is difficult because of the person’s dishonesty.”
Autists seeking publicity and even successfully so is highly suspicious.
The autistic guy with his flapping arms this is just a symptom. I’m sure we all have our issues in terms of how we cope with the toxicity of existence these days. I say welcome them in as part of the symphony. Same with any form of aberration. They are part of the human story. I love being surrounded by deformity and monstrosity simply because it is part of a clear depiction of our times. Far better than the fake smile and polished teeth of the corporate agenda.
Interesting article, the problem with autism is it is now becoming a condition many claim to have, but have never been diagnosed with, nor will be, yet genuine sufferers are being missed.
Another leftie, woke ‘crisis’ in the offing. They need to keep coming up with new ideas to get worked up about.