Dr John Cormack - the Family Doctor who works for the NHS for free told GP he had tried every sensible way of raising the issue over several years with politicians and the NHS, but had got ‘absolutely nowhere’.
‘I’ve run out of patience,' he said. ‘It’s a slightly crazy situation and I’m running out of stamina. No one takes you seriously if you behave in the normal manner, so I thought I might as well do something that most people would consider a bit zany.’
The Essex GP wrote to health secretary Jeremy Hunt last month urging him to try working for free. He claimed his 4,000-patient practice was the ‘worst funded in Britain’. A funding formula anomaly, he said, meant he received less than half the amount of funding per patient than other local practices.
‘For the privilege of looking after my patients I have to pay almost £5,000, whereas the average GP earns around £100,000 a year,' he said.
Dr John Cormack - the Family Doctor who works for the NHS for free said he told the practice’s patient participation group about his name change plan. ‘They thought it was amusing but they don’t think it will bring any results,' he said. ‘But it just struck me as amusing that all these people in the NHS making payments and writing contracts are going to have to write my name as 'Dr John Cormack - the family doctor who works for the NHS for free.’
Dr John Cormack - the Family Doctor who works for the NHS for free said he had recently met with his MP and area team to begin an appeal process to challenge the funding allocation.
