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Everyone has had a chance to digest the new contract now. My view was that it looked great at first glance, but there are some concerning aspects.
The most concerning is that it adds to practices’ immediate workload.
There are plenty of things practices need to do: join a network and make sure it is ratified; find a way of hiring all these staff that are going to ease their workload burdens; and actually understand the whole 100-odd page beast.
There is nothing that will immediately lift any burden. No work taken away, no getting rid of QOF, no taking away DESs and putting the funding in the global sum.
This is not to dismiss the whole contract. But it is to point out that the one thing that is affecting every GP in the UK – excessive workload – is nowhere near being remedied in any country, or through any initiative so far.
It is for this reason that we feel we need to give a true picture of how much work GPs are doing in a single day.
We need you to save the date – Monday 11 February.
Make a record of all the patients you are seeing, the other work you are doing, the number of consultations. We are aware of the irony of adding to your workload on the day (although we hope it should take less than five minutes).
But these results will enable us to have concrete evidence to support the idea that we need drastic measures to keep general practice alive.
We hope to hear from you all next week.
