Daily Research News Online no. 4048 - Election Campaigns Off Target, Say GPs

Election Campaigns Off Target, Say GPs

May 5 2005

With Britons going to the polls today, research from TNS suggests that the campaign has failed to address the key healthcare issues as perceived by the country's doctors. Healthcare manifestos of all three major parties led on hospital cleanliness and the importance of reducing levels of MRSA.

Just four per cent of GPs say that improving hospital cleanliness and minimising infection rates is the 'biggest problem facing the NHS', compared with almost three out of ten (28%) choosing 'reduction of red tape' as the main NHS issue facing the next government. 24% said 'nurse / doctor recruitment and retention' was the key issue, 15% 'hospital waiting lists' and 14% 'more local control on where and how NHS budgets are spent'.

The research suggests that the Conservatives' views on healthcare are slightly better aligned with those of GPs than are those of the other two main parties. Some 34% of GPs said that the Conservatives' views most accurately represent their own, compared to just 19% saying Labour and 15% the Liberal Democrats. Most of the remainder (26%) say they don't know which party most accurately reflects their own views.

Replies also suggest a strong degree of scepticism about parties' likelihood to deliver on their NHS promises: when asked which was most likely to do so, one third of GPs said 'None'.

Question	Labour	Cons	Lib Dem	Green	Other	None	Don’t know
Which political party’s views on the provision of healthcare and the future of the NHS most accurately represent your own?	19%	34%	15%	2%	3%	NA	26%
Which political party do you most trust to deliver on its healthcare promises, if elected?	21%	27%	9%	1 GP	0%	33%	10%

Three quarters of GPs (76%) feel the salary they receive is not a fair reflection of what they feel they are worth, with some 27% saying that a salary increase of 50% or more would be required to achieve this. Even fewer (21%) say that nurses' current salaries are a fair reflection of the value of the role. Linda Alstead, Commercial Director, TNS Healthcare says that GPs clearly feel undervalued, and that 'politicians' inability to address the issues that GPs feel are most pertinent to the success of the NHS moving forward and the abundance of red tape, making their jobs more complicated, may be contributing factors to their dissatisfaction... Clearly the next government will have their work cut out to earn back trust among GPs and deal with the issues which affect them most'.

Despite the traditional picture of long working hours, 20% of those surveyed say they work a 40 hour week or less, and an additional 32% work between 41 and 50 hours per week. Just nine per cent claim to work more than 70 hours a week.

TNS Healthcare used its GP internet omnibus - Omnimed Internet - to interview 209 NHS GPs between 14th and 22nd April 2005. The group is online at www.tns-global.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.