Blair defends pay rises for GPs

The prime minister Tony Blair has defended the Government's decision to increase pay rates for GPs under the General Medical Services contract.

Mr Blair said at a King's Fund Event that it was necessary to increase wages in order to fill a shortfall in the number of doctors available when Labour came to power.

"It was right to increase radically doctors' pay both for GPs and consultants because we wanted to attract more of them," he argued.

While he denied that the Government had poured too much money into the NHS too quickly, he said "the concept of waste is there in any health service".

Meanwhile, a survey of GPs in Doctor magazine revealed that 13 per cent are optimistic that the profession has a healthy future. However, 70 per cent feel that it is under threat.

Commenting on the results, a spokesperson for the British Medical Association told the Daily Mail: "We do know that GPs are angry and morale is not good. The satisfaction of doing a worthwhile job is much more than about pay."

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