NHS England claims GPs are ‘largely unaffected’ by junior doctors’ strike

NHS England has told patients that general practice will be ‘largely unaffected’ by this week’s junior doctors’ strike, meaning they can still seek medical advice.

However, GPs Pulse spoke to said that practices are ‘definitely’ affected, both due to GP trainees being off to strike and due to reduced capacity in hospitals.

This week’s four-day junior doctor strike action over pay is not due to stop until 7am on Saturday, and GP practices were encouraged by the BMA to cancel trainee clinics on the strike days.

In a statement ahead of the start of the action, NHS England said it was ‘set to be the most disruptive industrial action in NHS history’, bringing ‘immense pressures, coming on the back of a challenged extended bank holiday weekend for staff and services’.

To make sure safe care continues to be available for those in life-threatening situations, hospitals were asked to prioritise emergency and urgent care over some routine appointments and procedures.

Meanwhile, patients were reminded to ‘only use 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies, and to use NHS 111 online and other services for non-urgent health needs’.

However, NHS England national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis added: ‘Pharmacies and GPs are largely unaffected by the strikes so patients can still get appointments and health advice.’

Dr Farzana Hussein, GP partner at The Project Surgery in East London, said the strikes are ‘definitely’ adding pressure on general practice, especially after a bank holiday weekend.

She told Pulse: ‘I am very supportive of the intention behind the strikes, but it will definitely add pressure, especially to have done it after a four-day weekend.

‘We know that already there have been massive long waiting lists [in secondary care] and that has had a massive impact on our practice.

‘People come in saying their condition has got worse, and those are all added contacts for general practice. We often can’t really do much about them.

‘A GP is not a substitute for hospital care. Now that we know with the strikes there’s going to be so many appointments cancelled, what this means for GPs is people will come to the GP and those all add to our consultations.

‘The frustrating thing is that sometimes there’s absolutely nothing we can do about that. It’s frustrating as a GP to think my patient is getting the right care.’ 

Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland LMC Dr Grant Ingrams said: ‘I suspect we will see the workload later due to patients having operations, investigations and outpatient appointments cancelled. We are likely to be picking up the pieces for the next month or so.

‘But the junior doctors are doing the right thing and making a stand. Something must give otherwise within a generation there will no longer be an NHS.’

Dr Annabelle Rose Machin, a salaried GP in Staffordshire, said that the strikes are putting extra pressure on a system already struggling to meet demand.

She told Pulse: ‘A large number of GP surgeries are training practices, they have foundation doctors on rotation who spend four months working in general practice, whilst GP registrars spend longer on rotation completing their training before becoming fully qualified GPs. Many of these doctors have gone on strike.

‘This means surgeries have reduced appointment capacity. This is putting extra pressure on a system already under immense strain where we struggle to meet the public demand for GP appointments.

‘At my practice our GP registrar has been on strike and I fully support their strike action. However, I did note that the patients I consulted this week were largely unaware that the strike action was affecting general practice, with some remarking that they just thought it was the hospitals that were impacted by this.’

Dr Jackie Applebee, a GP at The Tredegar Practice in East London, stressed that she ‘fully supports’ the junior doctors’ strike action, adding: ‘I think the NHS is unsafe anyway. As GPs we struggle to get safe care for our patients. If junior doctors don’t do what they’re doing, it’s going to get worse.’

However she added: ‘We can’t be unaffected because we’ve all got GP registrars. There will definitely be a loss of appointments because of that.

She said GPs would also ‘hold onto patients we’d normally send on to secondary care’.

‘So we’re probably holding onto more risk than normal.’

Last week, at least four hospital trusts in London offered £150 to £200 an hour to GPs willing to cover for junior doctors going on strike.