Dr David Wrigley

400 doctors recently gathered in Belfast for their annual meeting to discuss issues affecting the whole profession. It is a 4 day event and a very busy week discussing issues affecting everyone from medical students up to retired doctors covering medical politics as well as the professional, scientific aspects affecting our day to day work. GPs were angry this year. Angry at how their branch of practice has seen yet more cuts to their budgets and angry with politicians who make out things are OK when those of us working on the front line of the NHS know it isn’t. GP surgeries are closing across the country now. GPs can no longer keep going and are handing their keys back to NHS England. What a shocking indictment on our politicians when their policies and funding cuts bring about the closure of much loved and well respected community surgeries. Patients are the ones who lose out and once a surgery closes it will never come back again. The workload in intolerable with u...

I arrived at the picket line at Royal Lancaster Infirmary at 8am on Wednesday just as the photographer was arriving to take some pictures for his latest story. There is still significant media interest in the strikes - which are the first set of doctors strikes in 40 years. The junior doctors had arrived and were getting their banners ready and it was fantastic to see some local teachers turn up to support our doctors. The rain didn’t dent our spirits and we spoke to many passers by who supported us and hundreds of cars honked their horns in support as they drive by. As a GP I support our junior colleagues 100% in this fight for a safe and fair contract and what is in effect a fight for the NHS. I know they don’t want to be on strike but they have been forced into this by Cameron and Hunt who now see doctors as their enemy and are trying to crush them. A consultant came out to the picket line and brought coffee for us and I had a chat with him. He said the consultants we...

David Cameron has been the Prime Minister since 2010. Every policy has his authority stamped on it.  He is ultimately responsible for the policies of government. In 2010 his government introduced one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the history of the NHS. It was so unpopular it saw every type of NHS worker oppose that piece of government NHS policy - which is unheard of. Called the Health and Social Care Act the government eventually got their way because of the voting support of the Liberal Democrats. Back then the Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley (eased into the House of Lords now as Lord Lansley) knew his legislation was in trouble so he wrote a letter to all GPs on 16th Feb 2012 to try and smooth the way to the looming vote in the House of Commons. An extract can be seen here on a vital point of allowing GPs control over who they wish services to be run by - something the profession was very concerned about with many private companies seekin...

History tells us many things. When it comes to the Tory Party their action in the 1980s should present a clear warning to us now in 2015. Back in the 1980s the Tories spent most of the decade selling off public services. Tory belief is that the 'state should be kept small' which actually means selling off the assets we owned as a country to the private sector. In the 1980s we saw British Gas, British Steel, Water, Electricity, British Rail (1990s), British Airways, Rolls Royce and British Airways sold off very cheaply to the City investors, large pension funds and a small percentage of shares sold to the public (who owned all the assets beforehand!). We got the crumbs from the table where the corporate beasts were feasting. In the past 6 years the Tories have sold off RAF Search and Rescue to an American firm, the Royal Mail has gone to the City investors, East Coast Rail (profitable and giving millions back to the Treasury) handed over to Richard Branson and banks that w...

There has been much debate in recent times that the only thing to save the NHS is a 'cross party commission'. The constant refrain that the NHS is bust belies the fact that the NHS has been in surplus in recent years with the leftover funds sent back to the Treasury and not used for healthcare. What is also forgotten is that there is a set of government imposed cuts to the NHS of over £20bn. This is why the NHS is struggling, waiting times are increasing, beds are never freed up, doctors struggle to properly care for patients and A&Es , hospitals and GP surgeries are bursting at the seams. A commission has been backed by some well known people who have some very worrying hidden facts about themselves that they are not keen to broadcast. Norman Lamb MP has spearheaded the campaign for a commission. Here is a politician who was at the heart of health policy in the Tory led coalition from 2010-2015 – a period of time that pushed through the disastrous Health and Social ...