Robert Rinder locked horns with Doctor Amir Khan in a Good Morning Britain spat over a lack of GP appointments for patients in England..
Robert, who received widespread praise from ITV viewers when he returned to the show last week and boasted about how ratings had gone up significantly, kicked things off by addressing the fact that scores of people across the country have been complaining that they have faced a long wait for ambulances to come and deal with emergencies, while many others can't even get an appointment to see their own doctor.
Dr Amir, who was an almost constant presences on GMB during the Covid pandemic and continues to be a regular guest, joined Robert and co-presenter Ranvir Singh via video call and was asked by the man, famous to millions of daytime TV fans as Judge Rinder, if GP themselves were doing enough to alleviate the issues.
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He remarked: "There's a lot of complaint and disquiet, that's a posh way of saying that they're very very angry, that a lot of GPs aren't opening on the weekends. They're refusing to work the houses required to deal with massive backlog."
Robert then questioned whether or not GPs should be 'prescribing' exercise for people if they think it's 'in the interests of the patient," before adding "...when the surgeries are actually open."
The last part of Robert's comment seemed to irk Dr Amir as he replied: "Well Rob, let me answer your first part of the statement, because we were promised 5000 extra GPs by this government, that hasn't happened.
"I train GPs up, normally I would be training one or two GPs up each year, at the moment I've got five trainees under my wing," before adding: "If you're angry that you can't get an appointment with a GP, don't blame the GP, just like you wouldn't blame hospitals or porters if you had a six month wait to see them; blame the Government, who are responsible for this crisis."
The heated exchange got a lot of reaction on Twitter, with a number of viewers condemning Robert Rinder's approach. One tweeted "Goodness me Robert how ignorant. The extra staff GPs were promised didn't materialise. Again. Direct your ire at the people who didn't give you the Unicorns they promised."
However, others sided with the presenter, with one asking: "I don’t understand why some practices are offering face to face , and why some practices are only offering phone appointments . If my GP has the time for a phone appointment , why can’t he see me face to face?"
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