DR. MARTIN SCURR: I had to do 13 courses to become a woke doctor to get back into the NHS… but that’s NOT the reason I’m going back to private GP practice

I am a retired GP and I was keen to rejoin the NHS to help tackle the current crises. But after completing the mandatory thirteen mandatory return courses in equality, diversity and human rights and handwashing – I’m not kidding – I’ve decided that I simply can’t go back to the NHS as a GP.

It’s not the courses to become a woke doctor that ultimately put me off – although it was quite frustrating to have to spend hours ‘training’ on the new requirements for functioning in our modern world.

Because of course it is important that everyone is fully informed about everything and gives the correct consent – one of the thirteen courses -, but the intention is that we do this anyway. But as for lifting patients safely, fire safety, or health, safety and welfare, infection control, CPR (yes, in fact, doctors are taught how to perform CPR) and so on – really?

Then there’s the increasing use of ‘woke’ language within the NHS, with changed advice on pages online, for example, ostensibly to make it more inclusive for trans men: breastfeeding is now ‘breastfeeding’, expectant mothers are pregnant people.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of pounds of NHS money is being wasted on new ‘woke’ roles, including an anti-racist advisory role, instead of going towards primary care.

I feel like healthcare is becoming too PC to care about actual patient care.

But while that is one reason, it is not the main reason why I am not going back to the NHS.

My decision isn’t about money either – because in fact you can make a fortune as an observer these days.

The simple reason is that as an NHS GP – or like many other NHS doctors – you often don’t see your patients face-to-face anymore, and in my opinion this means you can’t be a real doctor.

I am 73 years old (although in my head much more 43). I always thought I would continue working until I was 70. Traditionally, GPs work well into their senior years, some even into their 90s.

However, a debilitating illness caused me to stop practicing as a private GP in 2017, at the age of 66.

I had sarcoidosis, a mysterious disease that sent my immune system into overdrive. I lost 10kg in weight and my muscles deteriorated so much that I could no longer climb the stairs to my London consultation room.

It took months before the diagnosis was made.

Then I had to take a long dose of steroids before the symptoms started to go away.

It seemed sensible to retire as a GP and give up my GMC license to practice – it cost me £1,000 a month to keep my medical practice insurance.

Not long after the pandemic hit, my phone was ringing red with former patients and their families and friends desperate for advice.

It made me think about returning to practice.

The NHS is now waking up to the fact that it is missing out on a wealth of invaluable experience among retired doctors who are still brilliantly able to care for patients. This comes just as NHS GPS is fast becoming an endangered species, with unprecedented numbers entering early retirement.

A report in the British Medical Journal last year found that the number of GPs who have taken voluntary early retirement over the past 15 years has grown by almost 10 per cent every year.

In an attempt to turn the professional tide, the health service this week launched the NHS Emeritus programme, initially to lure retired consultants back into the health service to help reduce our hugely long queues for treatment.

NHS bosses hope to extend the scheme to many types of doctor work.

Their announcement states that these retired consultants should help unblock the system by offering pre-surgery outpatient appointments to people on long waiting lists.

The NHS clearly plans for many of these appointments to take place online, rather than face-to-face. It says: ‘Consultants making remote appointments can be based anywhere in England.’

And you can be sure that this will be the favored option as the NHS has been caught up in the ‘technology good, human contact unnecessary’ hype.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I won’t go back to the NHS, even if I want to. I feel that I can now only provide effective care as a private GP. I have witnessed the terrible damage that remote access has caused in NHS general practice.

That’s why the GP system had fallen flat on its face by the end of the pandemic: it was no longer about seeing patients in person and providing the continuity of care so essential to curing disease.

Instead, GP practices barricaded themselves away from patients during the pandemic. They closed their doors to people in need, even though the hospital staff had continued to work and provide people with good care 24 hours a day.

The fact remains that face-to-face consultations – what you might call ‘old-fashioned NHS doctors’ – are the secret to effective care.

Patients may come to you because of one problem – a headache or a child’s illness – but through the human interaction of face-to-face consultations you discover that something else is actually going on and worrying them.

Moreover, as a general practitioner you develop an instinct that tells you immediately from in-depth experience whether they are really ill and need urgent examination and treatment.

It’s like customs officers who intuitively know which luggage to search.

You just can’t do this online or by telephone.

Since the pandemic, the problem with access to GPs has only worsened.

Nowadays there is a world of people who contact me because they simply cannot reach their GP.

I cannot allow myself to be locked inaccessibly in the NHS system – nor do I want to enter a world where I am instructed to use anything other than the caring, compassionate language I pride myself on, rather than ‘regulatory language’. .

I want to function as a high-functioning physician who does traditional things like seeing patients quickly, both in my consulting rooms and on home visits as needed.

I have just traveled from my home in Norfolk to London to see an elderly lady who broke her femur in a bad fall ten months ago and had to have the bone fixed.

She should have received help from an NHS GP with her recovery, but has not been able to see her GP once since the accident. That was ten months ago.

I am now re-qualified to practice as a private GP, having completed the now mandatory 13 statutory GMC professional revalidation courses.

I intend to provide my patients with continuous care, to be a doctor they can trust, who will provide them with help and reassurance when needed.

This is worrying some well-meaning friends and colleagues. “Won’t you be overwhelmed?” they ask. Maybe. But I have a plan. I am clearly not the only retired general practitioner who would like to practice good doctoring in the traditional, effective way again.

I have already found an excellent colleague to work with me so that we can support each other.

There will undoubtedly be many others trying to reclaim their true calling. The message has already gone out and the phone is ringing.

I am sure that, unfortunately for the NHS, this type of private GP practice is the only future for good GP practice. We’ll see how it goes. Wish me luck.