Opinion: Value us while we're still around.

What a sea change hit primary care with the new contract. GPs now look bright and bushy-tailed because they have every evening and weekend off. Meanwhile, screams of financial agony are emanating from primary care organisations (PCOs) as they realise that GPs won't work out-of-hours shifts for the paltry sums they once received for the 24-hour commitment so loyally performed in the past.

To value a year's on-call at pounds 6,000 was an insult. At that price, no wonder we all wanted to drop responsibility for out-of-hours. The DoH must have known it had grossly undervalued our time because they immediately gave PCOs pounds 3,000 extra per GP principal to buy in …