Recent ministerial pronouncements and media hyperbole around GPs being personally responsible and even personally providing out-of-hours care have sent shock waves throughout the profession. Such a reversal of an agreement that suited government as recently as 2004, is regarded by three generations of GPs as the last straw. For rural and city GPs alike, that agreement brought an end to constant battle against exhaustion, absence from family and home, marital breakup, neglect, and deterioration of personal health with no respite in sight. Demand for out-of-hours visits could not be stemmed, even by long, open-ended evening surgeries.
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