GPs spark outrage by voting to end home visits to bedbound patients – The Sun

GPs have sparked outrage by voting to end home visits to bedbound patients.

The medics — on an average salary of £113,000 a year — claim they are too busy to see people outside of their surgery.

They will demand the NHS removes these duties from their contracts after backing the move in a ballot yesterday.

Campaigners warn the decision will mean dying and elderly patients suffering alone.

Joyce Robins, from Patient Concern, said:  “Stopping home visits will be a ­disaster for them.”

Dr Sarah Matthews, of Coventry, who opposed the motion at the Local Medical Committees conference in London, said: “This is a very bad idea.

“It will sell the heart and soul of our profession away.”

But Dr Andrew Parkin, from Kent, who proposed the motion, said: “We do not have the capacity, we do not have the staff and we do not have the time.”

The motion was passed by 54 per cent to 46.

A separate vote calling for alternative plans for housebound patients also passed.

The GP Committee of the British Medical Association is now expected to negotiate with NHS England.

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