HAILSHAM: GP'S FEAR OVER NHS FUTURE

Dr David Hanraty, of the Bridgeside Surgery in Western Road, said the NHS was on the brink of collapse for family doctors. He called current legislation the politics of lunacy . Dr Hanraty was criticised in the early 90s for predicting substantial change in the NHS by the end of the decade. Yet his predictions came true. In just 11 months time, he envisages an NHS without GPs the gatekeepers of the health service. Speaking to the Express he said: We believe the Government has come up with policies that sound good and have a reasonable basis but they are non-sustainable in the absence of resources and funding. His comments come just a week after 56 per cent of GPs nationwide voted to resign from the NHS if contract negotiations are not satisfactorily concluded by April next year. More than two thirds of doctors in Hailsham, Seaford and Eastbourne backed the action by signing undated letters of resignation. They are unhappy that workloads and government regulation have increased while salaries are more or less unchanged. He said: We are supposed to provide a first world service with third world resources. We are going to be forced to do more paperwork to make the Government feel good. It will have no benefit to patients and I just cannot support it. If mass resignations do occur next year, Dr Hanraty believes low-income residents would be hard hit. If resignation was the preferred route, I imagine we would run a system similar to France whereby you pay after seeing a doctor and claim it back from the NHS. But that would hit those families who were not in a position to pay for such services in the first place. He said GP practices would become small businesses and would be fiercely competitive. Dr Hanraty added: I believe passionately in the health service but there s no way I am going to support political game playing. A spokesman for the NHS Executive said the Government recognised the need for reform. He said: The Government accepts that a great deal of investment needs to go in to the service. It has been starved of rescources over many years so it takes time to put things right. The Government and NHS are committed to do so. He said 3,000 practices will be modernised, 500 new surgeries will be built and 2,000 new GPs will be recruited. Published: 7.6.01 Sussex Newspapers Ltd