But there are two sides to every story and Tom Coffey, a south London GP who is also a member of the Children's Taskforce, believes there is some misunderstanding about the way family doctors work.
"Social workers perceive GPs to be money-grabbing people who never turn up for case conferences," he says. Child protection conferences tend to be held at 10am on Mondays or Tuesdays, which would mean cancelling 25 patients. "I say I can attend if they pay a locum to cover the work," Coffey explains.
He suggested holding the conferences from 12pm to 1pm or 1pm to 2pm so they could be considered as home visits. However, he was told they had to be held in the morning.
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