In the UK, the Guardian reports on the situation with doctors wanting to be compensated for offering extended hours.
GPs in England will today be offered a £150m sweetener to persuade them to back Gordon Brown's plan for extending surgery opening hours into evenings and weekends...
Stores vs Health Services - Customer Service
In retail stores, customers expect week
end trading to fit in with their work and family times. Why should consumers expect any less for other basic services, such as health and banking?
Sure, health services staff need family time too. But the bottom line is that medical practices are businesses. Like any other business, they need to fit in with patient needs.
The grey area is that a lot of these practices and health services are subsidized by the government. But there are also other implications and costs to the community and to the economy.
The Guardian report elaborates
The Confederation of British Industry told the government in August that employers were losing millions of working days every year because staff have to take time off to fit into GPs' working hours.
Neil Bentley, the CBI's director of public services, said: "Four times as many working hours were spent last year in doctors' surgeries as were lost to industrial action."
What other consumer areas do you feel should have extended customer friendly hours?
Do restricted hours in health and banking affect your business directly or indirectly?
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