South Cumbrian GP's are calling for a meeting with MP's to try and stop abuse directed at their profession.

Debate has been sparked following an incident where four members of staff were assaulted at a doctors surgery in Openshaw, Manchester.

This resulted in the chair of the British Medical Association council Chaand Nagpaul CBE taking to social media to show his disgust and calling for intervention from the Government.

The tweet sparked a response from Cumbrian GP's who want to hold a joint meeting with Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell and Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron.

Dr Gerry Murray, of Dr Murray and Partners in Ulverston, is one of the GP's who has spoke out to support the idea of meeting the local MP's.

He said: "We are trying to arrange a meeting with the MP’s to highlight at a high level what the reality is on the ground of the General Practice.

"We know that patients are not necessarily very happy with what we are doing but we are not happy with what we are doing either.

"Nationally this is a very big issue, and the national press has been very hard on GP's and people are very despondent about this.

"We have worked hard over the last 18 months and if the national press are suggesting we’re not working hard enough its very dispiriting and it's leading to a lot of unhappiness among GP's.

"Clearly there is a perception from the public that General Practice has not been open or seeing patients, but certainly everyone in the locality has all been seeing patients, we just haven’t been seeing as many patients. We have been continuing with telephone triage since the beginning of the pandemic.

"The figures nationally are that we are about 25 per cent busier than we were pre pandemic, and locally it’s the same. There's a lot of pent of demand that we are trying to manage."

Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell came out in praise of all NHS staff and said they deserved praise, not abuse.

He said: "NHS staff, be they in General Practice or the wider NHS have been phenomenal through this pandemic.

"They have dropped everything to support the nation through Covid, been responsible for much of the delivery of the fantastic vaccination programme, and now have significant backlogs to attend as a result of it.

"They are under huge pressure and it is simply not fair that people - in isolated incidents - are abusing staff.

"It's understandable that if you want treatment and can't receive it straight away that you may be frustrated, but the teams I know are working flat out to see as many people as possible and doing so face-to-face.

"In fact my team rang 18 of the 30 practises in Furness this morning - they were all offering face-to-face appointments.

"Frankly, these staff deserve support and praise, not abuse."

The Tweet that sparked the debate by Chaand Nagpaul CBE said: "This is truly horrific. We need immediate, visible, decisive zero-tolerance intervention from government to end this rising tide of abuse against GP's and staff."

He said that Sajid Javid, Boris Johnson and NHS England "have an absolute duty to protect NHS staff and must now act."

It comes as GPs face growing pressure as demand for appointments rise.