This site is intended for health professionals only


BMA rejects vote on industrial action over GP contract

The BMA has rejected a call for doctors’ representatives to vote on industrial action over the recent imposition of the 2013/14 GP contract by the Department of Health in England.

A motion submitted for the BMA’s annual representative meeting (ARM), to be held in Edinburgh later this month, asked for a ballot of BMA members whether to take industrial action to stop the Government’s contract imposition.

Suggested by the London Regional Council and the Enfield and Haringey division, the motion also called for the ballot to include a boycott of CCGs as a means of putting pressure on the Government.

But the BMA has not opted to include industrial action over the GP contract as a topic of debate at the ARM. Instead doctors’ representatives will vote on whether they agree that the meeting ‘deplores’ the recent unilateral imposition and for the GPC to ‘discuss’ with the GP membership of the BMA ‘the basis on which future negotiations will take place’.

A BMA spokesperson said of the motion scheduled for debate: ‘That is the composite motion that drawns together everything else. It will be proposed by the Cambridge, Huntingdon and Ely Division but of course anybody from London can also get up and speak.’

Other issues that are up for debate in the general practice session, scheduled for the afternoon on Wednesday 26 June, include general practice funding, locum superannuations and GP education and training.

The rejected motion:

This meeting notes that the Government is imposing a new contract on GPs for 2013-2014 which will result in an increase in workload and reduced funding. We see this as a provocative move to hasten the rundown and closure of smaller GP general practices and bring about their amalgamation into large commercial multi -practices. We call on BMA and GPC to:

  • ballot for industrial action to stop the imposition of the 2013-2014 contract changes;
  • include the option of a boycott of CCGs on the ballot paper.

Source: BMA