Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2015 | Page 27

FEATURE
hospital struggles to fill some medical
posts, and therefore has to use
expensive agency staff. They also have
difficulty in recruiting nursing posts,
and are soon to undertake an overseas
campaign. Similarly in primary care
there is a shortage of around 10 per
cent of GPs and when you look at
profiles of GPs on the Island, 20 per
cent are over 55 years of age, nearing
retirement.”
Caroline Morris said: “We have 17
GP practices (17 different businesses)
on the Island and in the past GPs
would routinely buy into a practice
when they started. But practices
are struggling to get GPs to buy
into the partnerships these days.
Many younger doctors don’t want
to take out a big mortgage to buy
into the premises, the business and
everything that goes with it and are
wanting careers with much more
variety in them.
“We are also struggling to recruit
GP trainees to come to the Island.
When GPs retire, they can’t sell
their share of the partnership onto
the next generation, so they are
instead employing salaried GPs and
more specialist nurses to do the
work. The Freshwater practice was
a good example where recruitment
difficulties brought the practice near
to collapse as it struggled to meet
the needs of their patients as they
hadn’t the GPs required to deliver the
services.”
It also appears the days when you
went to see YOUR doctor for every
health problem are going. Now you
will see someone in YOUR practice,
with Helen explaining: “You no longer
register with a specific GP; you register
with the practice, and a lot of GPs work
part-time. In primary care we will see
more team working, with the GP still
in charge, but of a much bigger team
doing work under his or her control.
Caroline added: “For the future
we need to reassure patients that if
you don’t happen to see a specific
GP, then don’t worry, the GP is still in
control of your care. When you go to
your practice you will see someone
highly qualified and capable of
looking after you, but it may not be a
particular doctor anymore.”
Helen pointed out: “The NHS on the
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