Doctors who are not on the performers list should be allowed to work in practices with GP supervision, according to England’s local medical committees.
The move was debated at the annual England LMCs conference in London last week, with a motion narrowly passed.
In all, 111 GP representatives voted for, while 110 voted against and five abstained.
The motion, proposed by Croydon LMC, said that ‘doctors who are not on the NHS England medical performers list should be allowed to undertake general practice primary medical services under the clinical supervision of a general practitioner’.
Proposing the motion, Dr Richard Brown said: ‘Many of our colleagues from secondary care, community care, perhaps even from other countries wish to work in general practice but at the moment can’t because there isn’t the opportunity for them.’
Retired GPs who are still registered with the GMC but no longer on the performers list could also ‘be brought back for a few hours a week’, as well as colleagues from other parts of the health service who ‘could provide a valuable service in general practice when the workforce is so stretched’, he added.
He stressed that this would only be ‘in very specific circumstances’ and is ‘not about doctors who are not on the Performers’ List being allowed to take over general practice’.
There were no other speakers in favour of the motion, but speaking against, Dr Thilla Rajasekar from Kent LMC said: ‘This motion wants to address the perennial problem of GP shortages through an idea equalling to shuffling the deckchairs or robbing Peter to pay Paul.
‘The risk from this motion is that it will create a two-tier two-lane highway for working in general practice – one with the usual validated GP training with all its protection for trainees and another under the vague auspices of GP clinical supervision with no clear template for recruitment or validation through GP training.’
Dr Shamim Rose from Liverpool LMC added: ‘Looking at placing medically-trained doctors from a specialist background in general practice without a formal validated training schedule will be detrimental not only for the patients but also for colleagues.’
And BMA GP Committee for England deputy chair Dr Kieran Sharrock said that if more doctors were to come into general practice under GP supervision, this must be ‘fully funded’ alongside the extra space needed to house them in already stretched GP premises.
He added that the issue will also be debated at GPC UK in December.
Earlier this month, NHS England supported calls for more secondary care doctors to work in primary care, either doing similar work to GPs or practising their specialty within multidisciplinary teams.
The proposal caused fears around a lowering of standards and concerns around whether it could lead to a return to the time before GP training became mandatory.
It would still have to be ratified by the UK Government in England, and the devolved nations’ parliaments through secondary legislation – a development that seems more likely now it has the support of NHS England.
Motion in full
CROYDON: That conference believes that doctors who are not on the NHS England Medical Performers List should be allowed to undertake general practice primary medical services under the clinical supervision of a general practitioner.
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READERS' COMMENTS [4]
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There are a number of Doctors who have been through 3 years of GP training and were rated competent by their supervisors but cannot practice because of failing exams. And they are still working in NHS ! If they can be safe in hospital and were found safe in primary care during training, I do not see any reason that they cannot work as safe and independent GPs
It’s because the RCGP is inherently a racist organisation.
Their exam is science-light and based on erroneous sociology picked at McMaster University in the late 1970’s (have you ever met a pale lady who has failed their exam?
BAPIO brought a case to court a few years ago. The outcome was ‘interesting’.
Seems like a good idea. Many retired GPs might come back to do chronic disease management or other specific areas of work they have an interest/skill In. Key thing is to reduce the huge bureaucracy that inhibits many returning.
Where’s Prof Steve Field and Arvind Madan et al. when you need a closed GP to reopen? Oh, making sweet dollar from e-Consult, vertically disintegrating Wolverhampton and plotting your failure more.