12/04/2017 Points West

Under pressure - hundreds of GPs in the region say they've had enough

Why did these amateur players get a rugby lesson

Thanks Rowling January, the enthusiasm is fantastic. Dry weather

looking step to continue, but will it last Easter? Join me towards the

end of the programme. Two out of five GPs

in the South West say they intend to quit in the next five years,

according to a new survey. 2,000 family doctors took

part in the research. NHS England says it's working hard

to try to support doctors Here's our Health Correspondent,

Matthew Hill. Dr Michael Sproat is starting

a new life this week, which he hopes will mean seeing more

of his family. in Downend and he will now be doing

endoscopies for a private company I would start at half-past eight

and finish sometimes after nine What effect would this have

on you and your family? Difficult to put that

into words really, but a sense that my career was very important,

patients were very important to me as well, but really, equally,

my family has to be prioritised. Dr Sproat is part of a trend -

and according to a survey out today. It's warning we face

a severe shortfall in family years, as two in five family doctors

questioned plan to leave by then. To be honest I think there needs

to be a fundamental change in the approach of government

towards healthcare in the UK. The system at the minute

is underfunded. GPs account for 90% of patient

contact with the NHS, yet they only receive 7%

of its budget. Hotwell Surgery shut

its doors last month. of family practices to close

in recent years in the West. Tens of thousands of patients have

had to find a GP elsewhere. New pension arrangements which have

come in this month will mean the problem is only going to get

worse, as some GPs will be better off financially

if they retire early. NHS England says it's

already working to support to support existing GPs

by encouraging people back into the We are looking at how we support

primary care with a whole range of professions, because,

clearly, general practice is important, but also supporting that

with pharmacists, nurse practitioners and

other professionals. In November 5,000 patients were told

they would have to find a new doctor's surgery,

because their practice And with both an ageing population

with more health needs "the doctor will see

you now" could become a case of "the doctor will see you at some

point in the future". Dr Clare Jerada works

for a confidential service which helps GPs who are suffering

from mental health problems. have got to this stage.

the preswsures on family doctors We've got to this stage because,

rightly, over the last decade we've invested in hospitals,

consultants, we've also the community and into

general practice, but what we haven't done

is put any additional resource

into general practices. We've put a slight amount,

but not in anyway in comparison to what the secondary

care, the hospital system, has had. Therefore what I've seen is that GPs

are under an enormously increased workload, enormously complex

patients, without the resources to Whereas 15 years ago, I might see 15

patients in the morning But surely GPs know the kind

of profession it is when they get in into it,

that the pressure levels are high? Of course, we thrive

on pressure, but this isn't about thriving on pressure

this is about actually. They are taking their own lives,

it's causing depression, anxiety, post-dramatic stress

disorder, so it's not good enough to say, "You thrive on pressure,

therefore go off without any Do you think NHS England

are doing enough? It's called the the Five-Year

Forward Plan and hopefully it's not going to be

too little, too late. I am hopeful that because NHS

England has put additional resources in, that the cavalry

is just around the corner and if my profession can just hang on, I think

things will get slightly easier. I also think that patients

have a responsibility. They have a responsibility

to self-care, to go to the pharmacist, to look online

and also a responsibility to acknowledge that GPs

are under enormous pressure. For GPs and for health

care and for patients? They're going to have

to go somewhere. But it's not just

that, we sort people out, we sort out all these complex

issues, we sort out their benefits, If we don't exist,

you'll get massive queues to A and I'm afraid

that the rest of the NHS will just In other news, the parents of a five

year-old girl from Bristol who died from meningitis after being wrongly

diagnosed have been awarded The on-call GP did not admit

liability and the case We noticed that she had a rash

on her chest and on her legs, so I They told me that it

was just a bug, but Kelsey Smart was just five years

old when mum Hannah realised I've got to live for the rest

of my life without her, the hospital quicker,

but I trusted these doctors. She was vomiting and had a rash

on her chest.Her mum drove her to hospital knowing things

were more serious, but had to pull over when Kelsey began

to have a fit and dial 999. We were told the same day

that it was meningitis and she A three-week old baby had heart,

and another baby had her lungs and the nightmare began,

living without her. the out-of-hours GP,

who has never admitted liability. But Kelsey's family believe her

condition should have been picked up and want other parents to know

the signs of the disease so they can An amateur rugby team near Bath have

been given a special training session tonight -

from the head coach Avon Vale RFC, based in Bathford,

won a competition to get some Here he is, watching them in action

a little earlier - and afterwards Firstly guys thanks for having me

down here. The enthusiasm is fantastic and some of the general

skill work is fantastic, really good. Just a couple of things you

can improve, and your coach has been talking about it. Just keep your

depth in attack. Make sure you what you do in your warm up goes into

your game. The better you play the more fun it is, because when you win

it is fine and the beer always taste better or the cider? You play rugby

because you enjoy it and you'll enjoy it better if you win. There's

obviously a lot of good things going so keep enjoying it. Thank you guys,

Cheers. The language has been better at this station session, can opinion

with those little bits of information, there were a member

this for a long long time. Avon Vale are taking

on Melksham in their next game, so I'm sure they'll have a few

new tricks up their sleeves! Now, before we leave you,

just a reminder that the vote for the new West of England Mayor

gets ever closer, and we're going to be introducing

you to all the candidates. We've spoken to all those standing

in the contest and you can read more about their views,

on our special web page - you'll We're back tomorrow, but for now,

I'll say goodnight and leave Good evening everybody there is

minute you light showers around this evening but you'll be hard pressed

to find any rain tomorrow. It's looking like another dry day. Again

varying amounts of cloud competing with some brightness and sunshine.

It would be as breezy as today. For the rest of tonight temperatures

could drop down to three or four Celsius and any clearer skies

lasting long enough. There will be varying amounts of cloud in the

urban centres and as we head into daybreak there will be some

brightness around, some of the sunshine quite prolonged at times

but equally there will be these clouds which could be quite dominant

in other parts of the region in various times. There may be a fuel

light showers, but I wouldn't take those two seriously. Temperature is

not dissimilar to today, so 11 - 14 Celsius but as we head into Friday

will be some rain about. Brighter on Saturday but cloud again

on Sunday. Here is Tomasz. Good evening.

The weather in the run-up to Christmas... Easter! I got ahead of

myself there! It isn't looking especially great, nor is it looking

all that sunny. It will be changeable, it's been changeable

today. You can see cloud streaming out of the north-west of the

country. You can see some showers getting into north western parts of

the UK, but eastern areas will remain pretty clear tonight, so here

we have some frost on the way first thing, ground frost, nothing more,

and it will be gone by the time the sun is up. First thing in the

morning, some sunshine around across one or two parts of the east here.

Western areas probably a little bit more cloudy, maybe showers getting

into north western areas of England,