Treasure Family GPs while you still have them

11:17am Friday 27th June 2008

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WHEN I was a lad, the previous generation were always telling us how tough things were when they were young - and how lucky we were to be living in an era where things were getting better every day.

And I have come to the surprising conclusion that they were absolutely right.

I wish I could repeat their message to the generation that is snapping at our heels. But we post-war baby boomers, have really been lucky enough to live our lives during the best of times and I don't envy the inheritors of our not quite so brave new world.

The health service is a very good case in point.

For several decades we have taken for granted that the services of a GP and local access to emergency services, to maternity care and consultant care are, and will continue to be, not only available but free at the point of service.

But we are gradually seeing the erosion of all these services.

Wycombe is a large town and is getting larger. But hospital services are gradually being shifted further away to regional centres and policies are being put in place that one would never have foreseen from a Government that purports to be of the left.

Who would ever have predicted that the party that pioneered the National Health Service would ever even consider introducing competitive market ideology into health care provision?

But we have the situation where some GPs can no longer fill prescriptions for their patients and where there is a move afoot to set up what are being called "polyclinics" or "super-surgeries", run by private companies, where you may never see the same doctor two times in a row. NHS organisations in London already have plans to close 100 GP surgeries to make way for these polyclinics.

And in case you're thinking that this erosion of local healthcare will take time to spread to leafy Buckinghamshire, this week the health magazine Pulse' reported that Branson's Virgin multi-national has been actively discussing plans for mega-surgeries in areas including Birmingham, Peterborough and yes - High Wycombe.

So treasure your family GPs while you have them. Blink and they'll be gone, or beyond your reach, as there won't be any buses to take you to the town they have moved to.

And the local NHS trust will undoubtedly employ an awful lot of people to tell us that we are much better off too.