This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/7280427.stm

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
GP 'out of hours' vote result due GPs accept out-of-hours proposal
(about 13 hours later)
The results of a ballot of GPs in Scotland over evening and weekend working and out of hours appointments are due be made public on Thursday. Scottish GPs have voted to accept proposals to work evenings and weekends, but condemned the way the government has handled negotiations.
The British Medical Association (BMA) asked GPs whether they would accept the Scottish Government proposal. The British Medical Association (BMA), which carried out the poll, said many would opt to take a pay cut rather than change their hours.
When doctors signed a new contract four years ago, nearly all opted out of the responsibility for caring for patients outside normal working hours. Most family doctors stopped working out of hours under a new contract negotiated four years ago.
But the BMA is to announce whether they have voted to accept the new plans. But ministers in Scotland are now keen to extend GP services.
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has made it her priority to get doctors to work more flexibly. Doctors' representatives said the government offered them a poor deal and threatened to impose an even worse one if they did not accept it.
It is hoped the proposal to provide extended hours, in a deal worth £9.5m, would increase access to family doctors and reduce pressure on A&E wards and NHS 24. In the BMA poll, 93% of Scottish GPs voted to accept the government's proposals.
However, many GPs are unhappy at the way the situation has been handled. However, 97% said they opposed both the options which had been put forward and had chosen the proposals they felt were "less worse".
They have accused the government of breaking the terms of their new contract so recently negotiated. Meanwhile, 98% said the government's handling of the situation whad been unacceptable.
Concerns have also been raised it could take cash from existing funding schemes, seeing doctors working longer hours for no extra money. Expectations raised
It will be up to individual doctors to decide whether to open longer hours or take a cut in funding.
Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA's Scottish general practitioner's committee said: "The strength of GP feeling on this issue cannot be understated.
"The poll results reflect the anger amongst Scottish GPs, not because they are being asked to deliver extended hours, but in the way that the government has gone about negotiations on the matter."
He said the Scottish Government had missed a valuable opportunity by adopting the UK model.
"We recognise that the public wants extended hours and by working in partnership with us, the government could have come up with a solution that was practical, implementable and would give patients the service they want," he said.
Dr Marshall said that patients' expectations have been raised and that they had been "misled" into thinking that the same level of service would be available in the evenings and at weekends as during the day.
"This is a lose, lose situation for all involved. Patients will lose out because they will not get the level of improved access they expect and the Scottish Government loses out because it cannot deliver on its promises and it has lost the support of a key part of the health service," he said.