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The BMA has urged its members to vote to reject the government’s funding plans in today’s ballot on the future of general practice. The ballot, which closes at lunchtime Monday 29th July, could see GPs in the UK taking industrial action for the first time in 60 years.
At the heart of the issue is the disagreement over the new contract for GP services in England in 2024-25. The BMA says the contract would lead to the creation of a ‘two-tier’ health service in the UK and has urged members to reject it.
“We need all GP contractors/partners to vote Yes to send a message to the government that we are ready to stand up for a better service for our patients and to protect our practices,” the BMA told members at the end of last week.
“Our aim is to get the government back around the table to negotiate in good faith with GPCE,” a statement on the action read. “We want to deliver a new contract for the profession across England that provides the investment needed to transform, rebuild, and reinvigorate general practice. We need to fix our contract, not the model.”
Talks took place on Friday between health secretary Wes Streeting and Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA’s England GPs committee. However no agreement was reached, with the BMA renewing its call for members to back industrial action in today’s vote.
Dr Bramall-Stainer said that the UK’s general practice system is in need of a radical overhaul along the lines of 1965’s Family Doctor Charter. “We have moved on so much since then, but I think we need to again agree a set of principles if you want the NHS to be free at the point of use, universal to all, funded through central taxation.”
“In a free at the point of use service, you have got to have a really effective, emboldened, resourced gatekeeper. And your gatekeeper is the GP,” she said.
“The GP model is why the NHS has lasted as long as it has done and when you try and break the GP model, you break the gatekeeper, and when you break the gatekeeper, you break the NHS. I think that is what we’re seeing on a macro level.”
Under the plans for industrial action, GPs would cap the number of patients they see each day at 25. The current average number of patients is 37, with some GPs reporting seeing 50 patients in a single day. Other actions on the BMA’s list of options includes a halt to engaging with the e-Referral Advice & Guidance pathway as wells as a further eight possible actions.
If that 25 patient cap was to be observed across the board, the impact would be stark: “If all GPs implemented the patient cap, that could have a catastrophic effect on the entire healthcare system”, Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told the Guardian.
“General practice is now supporting more patients than before the Covid pandemic, so any reduction in their activity will put more pressure on other services, including A&E.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The health and social care secretary has met with the chair of the BMA’s GP committee to discuss their priorities ahead of their ballot closing on 29 July. However, it is important we plan for all contingencies, in every eventuality, to keep patients safe.”
A result from the ballot is expected imminently, with action beginning as soon as Thursday this week.
