Gordon Brown goes to war with GPs over extended hours.

I hope for Gordon Brown's sake that he does not need to visit a GP in the near future. I imagine that he will be asked to strip off and touch his toes whilst the Doctor uses something very large and very cold to check his colon. If Gordon's GP was to carry out such an act, then Gordon would only be receiving a large dose of his own medicine. Next April GPs will have to work longer hours or face losing money (about £30,000 for a three GP surgery). Gordon is going to achieve this by re-writing the family doctors' contract to include at least three extra hours to surgery opening times.

Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA's GPs committee said:

"We are being bullied so the prime minister can tick a box next to a politically-driven target without regard for the damage this could do in the long term to patient services in primary care." And that the Government were: "putting a gun to our head. "We believe the government's method of negotiation is nothing short of a disgrace ... The vast majority of our patients ... prefer to come to surgeries during the day."

This sounds reminiscent of the Police negotiations. If the government don't get the results they would like from negotiation, they simply impose their will anyway.

You can read more on this HERE.