‘Plan B’ will give GPs different options ‘if the NHS fails’, says new GPC chair

Exclusive A ‘plan B’ for general practice will give practices different options ‘if the NHS fails’, the new leader of English GPs has told Pulse.

BMA GP committee chair Dr Clare Bannon also said that she is prepared to ‘step up’ collective action, including taking action around online consultations, ‘if needed’.

Dr Bannon sat down for an interview with Pulse ahead of yesterday’s GPC England meeting, where she took over the chair for a three-year term.

In the interview, Dr Bannon said that a plan B for general practice is ‘not about just privatising NHS services’ but about looking at ‘alternatives’ and ‘different strategies’ to be presented to the Government as part of future negotiations.  

Dr Bannon was elected unopposed last week, and began her mandate yesterday after a GPC meeting.

Her election comes as the GPC is currently coordinating collective action against this year’s imposed contract, with the latest escalation announced earlier this month.

The GPC has also voted in favour of balloting GPs on a ‘plan B’ for general practice, including working outside the NHS.

Dr Bannon told Pulse: ‘How do we enable practices to have an alternative if the NHS fails? Because we want to support it, but we’ve got to run something alongside.

‘Whilst it’s early days, a plan B will give the profession options. It will give us alternative strategies to move forward, either in the eventuality that the contract is unsustainable or the NHS fails in some way.

‘It’s a mechanism to support and help practices as well as be something for negotiations. So it’s got to be robust. It’s got to be supportive, and it’s got to do what we need it to do, so we’ll be working on that over the summer and beyond.’

She added that the ballot on the plan B will happen before negotiations for next year’s contract, but that plans for it will ‘move forward this summer’.

Dr Bannon told Pulse: ‘Plan B needs to be a plan before we can have a ballot on it, and we haven’t fully worked up the plan. So it will depend on how quickly we can work up the plan.

‘I don’t want to push it down the road. We need to have done a ballot before we get to the next round of full negotiations of next year’s contract.

‘Whether we can do it towards the end of the summer or whether it goes into autumn is difficult to say. But we are moving forward with it this summer, we are moving forward with it from day one.’

She said that the change of leadership within the GPC has created a ‘really good opportunity for a reset’ and that she will be asking Government to come back to the table, but that if their offers are not ‘stronger’, collective action will be escalated.

Dr Bannon said: ‘I want to give that opportunity for a reset. I want to give the opportunity for Government to come back to the table and improve the offers we’ve currently had and be clear about what they’re going to come into this autumn and winter’s negotiations with, and they need to be coming in with something much stronger. Otherwise, we will need to be escalating that action.

‘The plan this month is to give an opportunity for that reset, and actually to move forward with with a reset, and give the opportunity for Government to come back to the table and actually to offer us positive change and give us an offer that’s meaningful and if they are able to do that, if they’re able to give us more reassurances and improve some of the issues we’ve currently got, then I think we we won’t necessarily have to escalate.’

When asked if she agreed with some critics who have previously said GP collective action has been lukewarm, she said that ;GPs on the ground haven’t felt that it’s been strong enough so far’.

She added: ‘So I would like to really step that up a gear if needed. We’re going to be getting in plan really strong escalations, and I think we do need to step it up a gear in terms of if [the Government] are not coming to table, if they’re not saying the right things, and if we’ve not got really concrete reassurances from them, then we will need to be escalating.

‘And I’m thinking about things around safer working. That’s what practices are really struggling with, huge demand from online consultations. And actually, that’s the kind of area where I think we’re going to be needing to step things up quite strongly.

‘Online consultations are likely to be part of it, but it will be around safe working in general.

‘We’re not against online consultations, but we’re against online consultations creating unnecessary demand and driving this kind of huge quantity of demand. So it will be around that, but the detail is isn’t yet fully worked up.’