• About
    • Ethics policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Ownership, funding and corrections
    • Complaints procedure
    • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Newsletter
Brighton and Hove News
11 July, 2025
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Opinion
    • Community
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Food and Drink
  • Sport
    • Brighton and Hove Albion
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Opinion
    • Community
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Food and Drink
  • Sport
    • Brighton and Hove Albion
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
No Result
View All Result
Brighton and Hove News
No Result
View All Result
Home Brighton

Shortage of family doctors in Brighton and Hove comes under the microscope

by Frank le Duc
Thursday 25 Oct, 2018 at 9:51PM
A A
0
Brighton and Hove doctors to take charge of key decisions about their own pay and performance

Dr David Supple

Anti-social hours are putting new doctors off long-term commitments to working as full-time general practitioners (GPs).

And despite government pledges to recruit more family doctors and to staff surgeries so that they can be open longer for patients, the GP workforce is shrinking.

In Brighton and Hove the problem is exacerbated by a significant number of family doctors being close to retirement.

Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) discussed the trend for new GPs in the NHS to choose to work as freelancers or locums rather than seeking a traditional partnership.

CCG clinical chair David Supple said that he had led a workshop for locums to encourage them to have a long-term commitment to the NHS, using “bribery”.

He said that, to attract locums, they were offered a free calibration of blood pressure machines because ordinarily “you cannot get them in a room”.

Dr Supple said: “We need a different approach. If people want to work school hours, that is normal. We need to look at why they are not applying for jobs.”

Eleven family doctors’ surgeries, including branch surgeries, have closed in Brighton and Hove since the start of 2015.

But the shortage of GPs was as much a national problem, he said, although Brighton and Hove had a significant number of doctors approaching retirement age.

At a joint meeting of CCGs at the Brighthelm Centre yesterday (Wednesday 24 October) Elizabeth Gill, chair of High Weald, Lewes and the Havens CCG, said that many newly qualified doctors were attracted to the flexibility of locum work.

Dr Gill said: “They don’t want to work summer holidays, Christmas, Friday, Monday – and charge an enormous rate which a practice has to comply with.

She said that doctors were unwilling to take on a substantial job, adding: “We need a golden hello and golden handcuffs.”

Dr David Supple

Jim Graham, of the Stanford Medical Practice, who represents GPs on the CCG, suggested employing more admin staff to free up doctors and other clinical staff.

Dr Graham said: “It is easier to recruit administrative staff rather than clinical.

“Clinical staff doing admin are not working to the top of their licence.

“Organising which GP is on call could be done better by an administrator.

“When front of house is not done there is a waste of capacity elsewhere in the system.”

Dr Graham said that the best admin staff were “navigators”, organising GPs and patients.

Sarah Valentine, strategic director of contracting and performance for the Central Sussex and East Surrey Commissioning Alliance, said that the number of people in the workforce had fallen by 1.3 per cent in the past year.

ShareTweetShareSendSendShare

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Most read

Council given £21m to shore up more seafront arches

Three libraries set to close

Seafront champions disappointed at being overlooked for new board

Counter-terror police investigate after Brighton woman arrested at Queers for Palestine protest

Shortage of family doctors in Brighton and Hove comes under the microscope

Drugs seized from stopped car

Cross-Channel ferry service to Dieppe at risk

Comedian appears in court over posts to Brighton antisemitism campaigner

Bob Dylan to open UK tour in Brighton

Campaigners and councillors react to proposed closure of three libraries

Newsletter

Arts and Culture

  • All
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Food and Drink
Battlesnake headline ‘Ausfest’ in Brighton

Battlesnake headline ‘Ausfest’ in Brighton

10 July 2025
Bob Dylan to open UK tour in Brighton

Bob Dylan to open UK tour in Brighton

10 July 2025
Skids to return to Brighton next January

Skids to return to Brighton next January

10 July 2025
Transvision Vamp’s Wendy James returning to Patterns in Brighton

Transvision Vamp’s Wendy James returning to Patterns in Brighton

9 July 2025
Load More

Sport

  • All
  • Brighton and Hove Albion
  • Cricket
Brighton and Hove Albion to receive freedom of the city

Brighton and Hove Albion sell winger to Sunderland for £21m

by Frank le Duc
10 July 2025
0

Brighton and Hove Albion have sold international winger Simon Adingra to Sunderland in a deal reported to be worth about...

Sussex Sharks open T20 Blast with a win

Sussex pipped by Kent in T20 thriller at Hove

by Bruce Talbot - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
9 July 2025
0

Sussex 148 (19.5 overs) Kent Spitfires 151-8 (19.3 overs) Kent Spitfires win by two wickets Joey Evison was Kent’s hero...

Brighton tennis player beaten by seed in first round at Wimbledon

Sonay Kartal’s impressive Wimbledon run comes to an end

by Eleanor Crooks - PA sport correspondent
6 July 2025
0

Sonay Kartal’s fine Wimbledon run ended with a fourth-round defeat to Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Brighton and Hove player...

Sussex Sharks open T20 Blast with a win

Bad night for Sussex at Hove as Hampshire bounce back in Blast

by Bruce Talbot - ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
5 July 2025
0

Hampshire Hawks ended a run of five games without a win in the Vitality Blast to revive their hopes of...

Load More
October 2018
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Sep   Nov »

RSS From Sussex News

  • Cross-Channel ferry service to Dieppe at risk 9 July 2025
  • Police officer admits sexually assaulting four women 9 July 2025
  • Hospital trust chief quits 9 July 2025
  • Foot fetish caller sentenced for repeated calls to police 7 July 2025
  • White van man held over road rage at Crossbush 7 July 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy
  • Complaints
  • Ownership, funding and corrections
  • Ethics
  • T&C

© 2023 Brighton and Hove News

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Opinion
  • Arts and Culture
    • Music
    • Theatre
  • Sport
    • Cricket
  • Newsletter
  • Public notices
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Contact

© 2023 Brighton and Hove News