Chippenham GP surgeries back doctors' protest action (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)
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Chippenham GP surgeries back doctors' protest action
3:19pm Monday 18th June 2012 in Chippenham
The Chippenham Surgeries Rowden, Hathaway and The Lodge have issued a joint statement regarding the proposed doctors’ protest action on Thursday June 21.
It says: "The GPs who look after the population of Chippenham would like to confirm that they support the action of their medical colleagues in their national protest against the Government’s handling of the NHS Pension changes, which have resulted in national outrage.
The main reason for this outrage is that, despite a fully comprehensive and fair review of NHS Pensions in 2008, the Government has suddenly taken a unilateral decision to turn the NHS Pension into a tax system in order to raise money for the national deficit, rather than a system to enable NHS employees to fund the requirements of the NHS pension system. This appears to disadvantage all hard working NHS workers compared to other employees in the civil service and perhaps even MPs and Government Ministers themselves.
Hospital doctors are employees and have fixed working hours which have to comply with the European Working time directive and therefore are in a position to work to rule.
Most general practitioners are self employed, do not work fixed working hours and indeed often work hours which exceed the European Working time directive, and have an open ended contract to look after the health of their patients. We are therefore not in a position to work to rule without compromising that care.
Therefore we would like to reassure our patients that, whilst we strongly oppose the policies that the government is imposing on the pension of all NHS workers, e.g. doctors, nurses, cleaners, secretaries and administrators including the Chief Executive, as far as our patients are concerned, it will be ‘business as usual’ for general practices in Chippenham.
Patients should not experience any scheduled disruption in accessing their local primary health services over the next two weeks."
Comments(9)
Your Mum
says...
10:24pm Tue 19 Jun 12
Regardless of the wage, why should public sector workers be targeted by the Government to pay more, work longer and get less?
The Gov should try claiming back the unpaid tax from Arcadia Group etc, or clamping down on the bankers bonuses - it was the bankers that got the country into this mess in the first place, not the hard working GP's, teachers, police, civil servants and the rest.
Solidarity.
ecochipp
says...
10:44pm Tue 19 Jun 12
Your Mum
says...
5:25pm Wed 20 Jun 12
Put a spin on it, you work at minimum wage in a part time job - Tories come along and say they want to half you pay because of the deficit. Fair? Nope. Why is this any different? It's not right to target the public sector when they were not, and are not the cause of the problem.
frosch
says...
8:30am Thu 21 Jun 12
many hardworking people in the private sector haven't had regular payrises or indeed pay cuts
but your mum, if you want the government can continue spending until the country is as bankrupt as Greece
Capricorn 1
says...
9:59am Fri 22 Jun 12
They also got to work shorter hours, should they wish, with an increase in out of hours cover.
They also have many many ways of supplementing their income.
HughBriss
says...
1:22pm Fri 22 Jun 12
A reassessment of Civil Service pensions is way overdue and has only been held up by the "Sir Humphrey"s in the Civil Service who have their hands on the levers of government.
freddie_W
says...
3:15pm Fri 22 Jun 12
Locksmith
says...
6:38pm Fri 22 Jun 12
Your Mum wrote:A GP on £120K per year at the moment can retire on £48K + get a £140K lump sum. Get real people - WE CANT AFFORD THAT, OK. So get off your perch and live in the same world as everyone else.
I'm fully supporting the decision by the BMA to call for industrial action, I just find it a shame that whilst the local surgeries also support it, they will not be taking part in said action.
Regardless of the wage, why should public sector workers be targeted by the Government to pay more, work longer and get less?
The Gov should try claiming back the unpaid tax from Arcadia Group etc, or clamping down on the bankers bonuses - it was the bankers that got the country into this mess in the first place, not the hard working GP's, teachers, police, civil servants and the rest.
Solidarity.
Hunnybun says...
8:05pm Tue 19 Jun 12