GP representatives will vote on pushing for full pay restoration and using industrial action to do this at the annual conference for UK local medical committees (LMCs) later this month.
Berkshire LMC will propose the motion which shows support for the junior doctors’ strike action and ‘demands a similar approach to be taken’ across the UK to ‘drive for full pay restoration for general practice’.
The motion also proposes that GPs ‘must consider industrial action’ if required to achieve this.
Junior doctors are taking industrial action, and the BMA is calling for 35% pay rise to make up for over 26% real-terms pay cut since 2008.
On Friday, the BMA’s GP Committee England (GPCE) voted against organising industrial action over this year’s GP contract, which was imposed by NHS England which included more stipulations on access but no extra funding.
In July last year, the Government accepted recommendations by the DDRB to offer salaried GPs a 4.5% pay rise despite partners being locked in the five-year agreement translating to only a 2.1% year-on-year pay rise, and the Government later confirming that practices would get no funding uplift to cover staff pay rises.
Other motions include a call to allow GPs to offer paid-for services if they are unavailable on the NHS, or ‘not accessible in a time frame that the patient deems reasonable’.
While a motion by Forth Valley will call on the GPC to reduce GP workload arising from patients using private healthcare, including stopping private providers from passing results onto GPs to action.
Other topics the conference will vote on include:
- Whether SAS doctors should be allowed to work in general practice and under what circumstances
- Instructing the GPC UK to ‘negotiate an urgent package’ of support measure for GP practices to cope with the rising costs associated with the cost-of-living crisis;
- Working to improve the firearms licensing processes to emphasise that GPs are not responsible for assessing eligibility;
- Lobbying for modernisation of the the death certification process to allow other qualified healthcare professionals to complete certification if they have been involved in the patient’s care;
- Instructing the GPC UK to negotiate a policy which means GPs do not have to pay for presentation of appraisal evidence;
- Calling on the GPC to improve the MRCGP so that it does not unfairly disadvantage trainees, for example by funding the first attempt at the exams.
The conference, named ‘Hanging on by a thread’, will take place in London on 18 and 19 May.
Highlight motions in full
GATESHEAD AND SOUTH TYNESIDE: That conference thanks the GMC for confirming they will not act against junior doctors taking industrial action and demands that the same pledge be extended to GPs, should they also invoke their legal right to take industrial / coordinated action.
NORTHERN IRELAND CONFERENCE OF LMCs: That conference notes with dismay the destabilising effect of rapidly increasing expenses and energy costs which are being absorbed by GP practices and instructs GPC UK to negotiate an urgent package of support measures for all practices.
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY FORTH VALLEY: That conference acknowledges patients are increasingly seeking healthcare privately, including travelling abroad for surgery. We call on the GPCs to work with appropriate authorities and stakeholders to:
(i) ensure patients are not required to seek approval from their NHS GP prior to accessing private healthcare
(ii) obligate private providers to inform patients of the total cost of recommended investigations, treatments and follow-up, highlighting these may not be provided by their NHS GP
(iii) obligate private providers to act upon investigations undertaken, and not simply pass results or further management suggestions onto NHS GPs to action
(iv) ensure that those who cannot access required follow up are not left without adequate specialist care
(v) ensure any involvement in a patient’s care by an NHS GP as requested by a private healthcare or insurance provider is remunerated appropriately.
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY GRAMPIAN: That conference recognises that GPs have a key role in primary care with providing continuity, dealing with complex physical and psychosocial presentations whilst leading the MDT team and:
(i) agrees that GPs are expert medical generalists whose training allows them to deal with complexities in patient presentations that no other members of the primary care team can
(ii) recognises the importance of RCGP exam and CCT to ensure GPs have been trained to a high standard to enable them to deal with the complexities involved in being a GP in 2023
(iii) demands the GMC immediately merge the specialist register with the GP register and recognise the profession as specialists in primary care
(iv) calls on UK government to appreciate this key role GPs play by rebranding GPs as consultants in family medicine (v) calls on governments to include leadership of MDT as a contractual requirement with appropriate funding and time for this role.
NORFOLK AND WAVENEY: That conference asks GPC to reject the GMC’s proposed changes to the Performers’ List to enable non-CCT holders to work within general practice as primary care doctors.
OXFORDSHIRE: That conference respects the significant contributions of sessional and staff grade (SASG) doctors to the health system both in primary and secondary care, and:
(i) notes that (non-training grade) doctors delivering primary medical services are currently required to be on the GMC’s GP register and also to be on a performers list
(ii) notes that sessional and staff grade (SASG) doctors working in secondary care settings do not have be on either a performers list, or the GMC GP or specialist registers
(iii) demands that any move to employ non training grade doctors, who are also not on the GP register, in GP settings must only occur in a strictly controlled pilot programme, set up to assess outcomes for those doctors and for general practice
(iv) recommends that BMA explore the potential to recognise both “GPs” and “non training grade doctors working in general practice”, similar to the system of employing consultants and SASG doctors in secondary care.
GP TRAINEES COMMITTEE: That conference notes the value of GP trainees maximising their experience of general practice during their training. We call on the BMA to lobby the relevant bodies to ensure that the entirety of general practice speciality training is spent in a primary care setting.
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY WIGAN: That conference believes that more strident efforts should be taken to induce medical students and newly qualified doctors to choose general practice as their medical career path, and calls upon governments to provide financial incentives:
(i) that provide an MOD-style sponsorship for GP VTS
(ii) that include a medical student debt cancellation scheme
(iii) with eligibility based on a prescribed number of years’ service as a salaried or principal GP.
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY NORTH WALES: That conference, in respect of the MRCGP examination:
(i) asks GPC UK and its component committees to lobby and work with RCGP and other stakeholders to ensure no GP trainee is forced to extend their training due to lack of availability of examination sittings
(ii) calls on all GPCs to work with the RCGP towards a system that will offer GP trainees who score under 480 on selection four- or five-year training at the outset rather than waiting for them to “fail” their examinations
(iii) believes that single sitting, “big bang” RCGP exams such as AKT are no longer an appropriate assessment and calls for them to be replaced by an educationally evidencebased assessment
(iv) notes the significant financial impact MRCGP examination and mandatory RCGP membership fees have on GP trainees and calls upon GPC UK and its component committees to lobby governments and education bodies to fund the first attempt at MRCGP examinations.
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY LOTHIAN: That conference recognises the incredible strain that GPs and other doctors across the UK are working under, and:
(i) calls on regulators to be cognisant of these pressures when investigating and responding to complaints related to stresses upon the system
(ii) applauds the move to a light touch, supportive, wellbeing focused appraisal process adopted in Scotland during the pandemic and supports the maintenance of this approach to appraisal going forward in all four nations
(iii) rejects any assertion that GPs must use commercial packages for the presentation of appraisal evidence, insists that appraisal evidence can always be presented without cost to the appraisee, and instructs GPC UK to negotiate to this end.
NORTH YORKSHIRE: That conference demands that regulations should be modernised around death certification and expanded to include other qualified health care professionals completing certification if they have been involved in a patients care.
BERKSHIRE: That conference notes the tragic loss of life in Plymouth in August 2021 and the subsequent renewed media attention on firearms licensing. Conference:
(i) believes that assessment of eligibility to possess firearms is a matter for police forces, not GPs (ii) believes that the role of GPs in the licensing process is to provide medical facts, not provide an opinion on eligibility
(iii) demands that BMA work with representatives of police forces and government to agree processes whereby relevant factual information can pass from the GP data controller to the police directly, reducing the possibility of an applicant tampering with the information provided (iv) demands that the work involved in delivering firearms licensing be properly resourced, for example through a fee paid by the applicant (v) believes that current electronic flagging systems or “firearms markers” on GP medical records are unlikely to improve public safety and should be removed.
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: That conference notes that unlike dentists and pharmacists, GPs cannot currently offer many private services to their NHS patients, and believes that:
(i) GP surgeries should at their discretion be allowed to offer their NHS patients paid-for services if these services are not routinely offered by the NHS
(ii) GP surgeries should at their discretion be allowed to offer their NHS patients paid-for services if these services are routinely offered by the NHS but are not accessible in a time frame that the patient deems reasonable
(iii) GPs can be trusted to manage potential conflicts of interests arising from offering paid for services to their NHS patients
(iv) the BMA should state that the wellbeing of its members is a higher priority than the delivery of NHS services.
BERKSHIRE: That conference fully supports the junior doctors in their strike action and drive for pay restoration, demands a similar approach to be taken by the four nations to drive for full pay restoration for general practice, and believes GPs must consider industrial action if required to achieve this.
It’s intensity that needs solving so people can earn more by feeling they can work more sessions
Exactly right. Increasing funding to primary care from 8-9% of nhs budget to 14-15% should sort it out.
If they want to tie it into targets for increased F2F GP time with patients please let them do it.
All the rest is deckchairs on the titanic.
all qof, all ARRS roles, targets, ideas, plans, promises, the lot.
Fund us to spend time with patients in front of us and leave us to do the rest.
We will have longer appts and more time with patients so intensity will go down, GPs can work more days and earn more and patients will get sorted out properly.
Will take pressure off A&E, patients will be managed better and stop bouncing around systems.
If they want they can fund regular interactive teaching from secondary care specialties so we can actually manage things a bit more with more confidence when able and with the funding and time to do it.