The BMA’s GP Committee England has voted down the Government’s offer of a 1.9% funding uplift at its meeting today, and instructed its negotiators to continue talks.
It has also announced that it intends to put a contract offer to members for referendum on 1 March.
Pulse exclusively reported yesterday that the BMA had received an offer of a 1.9% increase from the Government, and that the GPC chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer had met with primary care minister Andrea Leadsom to discuss the uplift.
Today, Ms Leadsom wrote to the GPC saying that it will reconsider the offer after the DDRB makes recommendations around an uplift.
The GPC’s statement also said that it estimates ‘up to one in four GP surgeries will seriously consider reducing their staffing to remain open for patients’, adding: ‘This was before this year’s derisory contract offer.’
Dr Bramall-Stainer said: ‘After spending an hour with minister Andrea Leadsom yesterday evening, I believe her when she said to me how much she values general practice, so I am glad that GPC England has mandated we keep these conversations open.
‘We have seen over 1,000 practices close since 2015, and with them the exodus of thousands more GPs from NHS roles, whilst patient numbers have risen by over six million. The current offer means that practices will not be able to break even, and will face awful choices over staff redundancies and service delivery which is incredibly concerning for GPs and patients in England. It is unconscionable that we are even seeing GPs out of work, and practices laying off staff to keep their doors open.
‘We know a significant majority of practices which are struggling. Costs have risen driven by soaring inflation. 1.9% may be what was set by Treasury in their operational planning guidance back in 2021, but such slavish adherence to budget lines from three years ago is not replicated elsewhere in the NHS. This regrettably falls far below what we realistically need to keep our heads above water, and what GPC England has reasonably called for.’
She added that GPC negotiators had proposed ‘many cost neutral proposals and solutions’. These included employing ‘GP and nursing staff to serve the needs of their patients both more effectively and efficiently in terms of value for money’. Ms Leadsom had indicated in her letter that the Government would be open to this.
Dr Bramall-Stainer said: ‘We have presented evidence and data which makes the unarguable economic case for investment in GP services. To ignore it risks saving pennies today in order to spend pounds tomorrow. It risks a swathe of practices facing no choice but to hand their contracts back, fuelling unemployment for trained GPs willing and able to work, and for some practices to close for good. That would be a ridiculous waste of tax payers’ money, and puts the care of the million plus patients we see each and every day at risk.’
Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) GP Lead Lizzie Dr Toberty said: ‘We can’t possibly continue to run general practice on contract uplifts that are hugely below inflation. Our costs are astronomical and have been going up and up while we’ve had to endure cuts and freezes to our funding.
‘It is clear this Government has absolutely no commitment to primary care. It’s becoming an increasing struggle for people to access the basics of general practice care.
‘We now find out that Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) staff have not reduced workloads due to a lack of skills. And we’re also seeing a huge amount of money being diverted to the Pharmacy First scheme.
‘None of this would have been needed if the money for primary care had been spent on doctors and nurses in the first place. We urge them to fund general practice appropriately.
‘An extra £30 to £50 per patient per year would be transformational and mean we can do our job of supporting the nation’s health properly. £200 per PT per year, would still represent phenomenal value.’
‘There is a very real possibility that if the Government does not increase funding we are heading towards a dentistry model of private care being all that is available in many areas. This would be an unmitigated disaster.’
And DAUK spokesperson and GP Dr Steve Taylor said: ‘This contract offer shows what the Government really thinks of GPs and patient care. Many GPs, including myself, are extremely angry, but sadly others are just leaving.’
He who expects nothing is never disappointed.
Need DDRB to report now , not in July. Then we know what the recommended uplift is and government’s willingness to fund it
Based on all our employees’ Hourly Rates increasing to £11.44 in April 24, the estimated cost to the practice would be £50437.59 an increase of £3935.53 per month which is unfunded-we are not a registered charity .
We will be cutting services and dropping staff, cutting hours etc.
We are being played. They want us to go. Goading us into striking or resignation. So they can have a cheap primary care run by nurses and ARRS staff. We are overqualified and too expensive for what the Tories think we do. Well, let them have it. I wonder how much OOH costs them now compared with when we did it for free. Give ‘em back the rope and watch them hang themselves with it.
I think the rope /hang themselves comment is not acceptable
Presumably Dr No’s comment is a metaphor and not a literal injunction to HMG…it’s quite funny actually, considering the imperious scorn with which HMG is treating us and our GPC reps.
Let’s see how much national press this gets in comparison to secondary care mess. I honestly don’t think we have any possible wins with strike action but I am now truly convinced there is a plan to destroy partnerships. Madness.
@Mairead
Collins dictionary lists this as an idiomatic phrase meaning “to allow someone to accomplish his or her own downfall by his or her own foolish acts”. I don’t think it was intended as incitement to suicide / murder.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/give-someone-enough-rope-to-hang-himself-or-herself
The Tory part seem like a bung of lemming chucking themselves and the uk Population of a metaphorical cliff.The last 13 year have been a clown car when as the UK drive around the 3 ring circus is bit keep falling off.
Bung was a misspell but for the Tory party it an ironic one.More Jollies from the American conglomerates before the next election anyone.(Red or Blue)
Shakespeare offered an equivalent metaphor in Hamlet – “to be hoisted by one’s own petard”
Not sure if more or less offensive
Gentle reader, I had considered alternatives but rope seemed particularly apposite, and Petard too polite. I would also draw attention to Lord Justices Popplewell and Fordham, who confirmed Judge Goldspring’s view that a protester calling a Tory politician “scum” and to fuck off” (out of Manchester) was essentially correct, not a breach of law, and a reasonable exhortation. This on the basis that the protester had first hand experience of the harm caused by Tory policy through their social work and the use of provocative language was reasonable political protest under the circumstances. I rest my case. Fuck the Tories. Do it for your patients.
Pulse breaking news : “Govt royally screwed. Trying out their black arts on the GPC team, who gave them enough rope, HMG gets hoisted by its own petard.”
When asked for a comment, PM Rishi growled, in his usual broad Geordie accent, “nowt to do with me mate, I’m fookin’ rich.”