Doctors reject protest day plea

Organisers of the unofficial day of protest claimed that hundreds of GPs took part across the UK, highlighting chronic staff shortages and increased workloads.

But with neither the British Medical Association (BMA) nor the Royal College of General Practitioners supporting the action, the extent of the protests seemed limited.

Apart from a solitary practice on Tyneside, The Northern Echo was unable to find any evidence of unofficial action by family doctors in the North-East, or North Yorkshire.

Checks with health authorities suggested yesterday was a normal day at the vast majority of doctors' surgeries.

Dr Ram Krishna Tiwari, of the Nelson Health Centre, North Shields, supported the action by doing paperwork instead of his morning surgery.

"I came in at 8am and got on with my paperwork. I am trained to look after people, not to do all the other things that doctors are expected to do," said Dr Tiwari.

Although he declined to see non-urgent patients, he agreed to see urgent cases. His partner held a normal surgery.

A GP with 22 years' experience, Dr Tiwari said he was so fed up with the situation he was planning to sign an undated letter of resignation from the NHS, as part of a national protest organised by the British Medical Association.

Whitehall sources condemned the day, organised by Doctor magazine, as a "damp squib" and a publicity stunt.

The magazine claimed between 100 and 200 surgeries would close and up to 1,000 GPs would take action of some sort, from writing letters to MPs to seeing only emergency cases.

Doctors say that increased bureaucracy, coupled with staff shortages, are threatening the quality of care they deliver.

Dr John Canning, a Middlesbrough GP who sits on the BMA's national GP committee, said he believed most doctors ignored the call because they did not want to inconvenience patients.

However, he predicted widespread support for the proposal for threatened mass resignations.