GP’s working hours could come back into debate once again in the House of Commons if the Conservatives get elected at the general election later this year. Shadow Health Spokesman, Andrew Lansley has said this week that the Conservative party will look to change rules brought in six years ago which meant GPs were no longer in control of out of hours care. It meant that Primary Care Trusts were given the responsibility instead and often brought in private companies to run the service, because 90 percent of GP’s decided to opt for a pay cut rather than work longer hours when given the choice back in 2004. But after the high profile case when German doctor Daniel Ubani gave a 70-year-old man too much diamorphine, later leading to his death, the Conservatives are looking to change this back to ensure that mistakes like this do not happen again. Lansley said, “When Labour took responsibility for out-of-hours care away from GPs they made a serious error.”


However, giving the decision back to GP’s might not be a solution to the problem of providing the out of hours care that is used by nine million people in the UK every year. The British Medical Association is expected to oppose this proposal, bringing back previous arguments that GP’s were overworked and underpaid. Either way, this is a problematic situation and these cases where people have died will have done nothing to help the NHS’ reputation. People who are concerned about the quality of care may take out a quote for private medical insurance which will provide them with more affordable access to private health care as an alternative.