Doctors in the House

MPs heard how doctors in Worthing and other parts of Sussex are facing a grim struggle against violence, overwork and huge patient demands.

Worthing MPs Tim Loughton and Peter Bottomley painted a picture of a GP service on the brink of disaster.

Mr Loughton told the Commons that one GP, Dr Bruce Allan from the Shelley Road Surgery, was spat at in the face after he refused a methadone prescription to a patient.

The same doctor had been threatened with violence, sworn at and had paint stripper poured over his car.

A partner at the Shelley Road surgery has had two tyres slashed on his car and another has had a knife scraped down the side of his car.

A series of articles in the Herald has told of the continual threat of violence in surgeries.

In one case, police in riot gear were called to a surgery waiting room in Worthing after a knife fight broke out between two patients.

Mr Loughton said: I pay tribute to the work done by the Herald. Usually mild-mannered doctors have gone public to give details of their plight and they are not pulling any punches. All this has happened in cushy, affluent, south coast Worthing.

MPs were told of the other side of Worthing. Mr Loughton spoke of a cocktail of serious problems which added to the impossible task faced by GPs in the town, including the country s largest percentageof elderly patients and a large number of high-demand patients.

For the full picture on the Commons debate and the doctors' crisis in Worthing, see the Herald, July 19.