I would not recommend the NHS Pension Scheme to a younger GP

Open letter to the Department of Health

I do not believe for one minute that anyone will actually read this or will take any notice of this letter. Indeed, in responding I may become just another statistic for your numerical manipulators to use in accusing GPs of greed and to bash us further.

I am a 42-year-old GP who qualified in 1992. I have seen our standard of living fall, improve and fall again.

The actual work of a GP during this time has become more intense and complex, even if most of us no longer work out of hours.

As a junior doctor, 100-hour weeks were commonplace and I have rarely worked less than 50 hours a week as a GP. I bloody well deserve every penny in pension that I get.

The idiots in the Government who are making these decisions will not be smashing apart their own pension schemes.

We are already paying employers' and employees' contributions from our pre-tax income, so increasing our contributions further is unfair, even in the light of the current economic situation.

I would not suggest to any GP younger than myself that they remain in the NHS Pension Scheme and I will be looking to extricate myself from it.

I suspect a lot of GPs feel the same way and I'm sure that if my colleagues and I withdraw from the scheme there will be an even bigger pension crisis in the NHS.

From Dr Simon Ruffle

Twyford, Berkshire