The sheer volume of work we get means that I have to log on most evenings & weekends. Not that uncommon in the professional world I guess, except that most people don’t have the public chastising them for being lazy part-timers. I’m physically in practice two days a week. I work at least five. Just logged off today and I’m utterly exasperated by the dumps on me by other organisations who seem to think everything is my job because it’s easier or they don’t know what to do. Requests for specialist referrals for a patient that has been with them for a couple of weeks with minimal information on why. The team they want referral to is in the same hospital. Asks for us to do capacity assessments on patients & let the specialist know that the patient declining the treatment they recommend is making an ‘unwise decision’ rather than a capacity issue. Arrange a MASH for a patient I know nothing about. Urgently prescribe medication for a patient a NP has literally just consulted with in clinic. Does secondary care think that we’re sitting around waiting for work? Holding spare capacity to do their job? Believe that all things administrative are the role of the GP? This is what will drive me out of general practice. Not the govt (close second). Not the media. Not the patients. It’s the incessant dumping on us. The total lack of respect for our time. The complete ignorance as to what we do. The treating of us as if we are community juniors. The unreasonable expectations they set for patients from us. Once upon a time we were on the same team. Now, they seem hell-bent on breaking us. The consultants are least responsible for this. It’s the lower-skilled, narrow-trained, don’t-know-what-else-to-do doctor subs that are the worst. I am sending all the tasks back, because that’s the only way to educate & change practice, but it’s exhausting. It’s not good for patients either, but they should never have done it & it needs to change for the benefit of population health.