Sofia Lind questions whether GPs can come together like nurses and junior doctors to take meaningful industrial action
The Government and the BMA’s GP Committee are in desperate last-ditch attempts to come to an agreement over the 2023/24 GP contract due to commence in April.
If the Government ends up imposing its proposed tweaks – which the BMA has rejected and Pulse revealed includes linking more funding to access measures and mandating practices to offer automated access to patient records by July – the GPC has said it will consider industrial action.
The GPC has even revealed it has a working group which is looking at options that go beyond previously floated ideas such as withdrawing from the PCN DES. Meanwhile, lawyers have suggested to Pulse that GPs could take more radical action than what was previously thought.
‘There is no reason GPs cannot close for the day as a form of industrial action – or only offer urgent care,’ one lawyer said. But GP leaders told Pulse that it is ‘very unlikely’ that GPs – at GPC and at the grassroots – would support such action because of contractual risks and patient relationships.
A familiar tune when it comes to discussions over GP industrial action, and part of the reason why health secretaries have felt comfortable enough to impose contracts more than once over the past decade (Jeremy Hunt in 2013 and Sajid Javid last year).
According to the BMA, the Government has now said it is willing to make changes to its contract tweak proposals, but it retains the threat of industrial action should a negotiated agreement not be reached.
The big question is: will GPs be able to come together like junior doctors, nurses, rail workers and teachers and take meaningful action? Past performance of the GPC is not an indicator of success in this area.
The other question is: is this contract tweak situation the right time for the GPC to show its teeth (or reveal its lack thereof) when the big negotiation is really coming up next year, when the current five-year contract (which has awarded GP partners a pitiful 2% pay rise throughout) comes to an end.
I could be wrong, but I’m betting that the GPC is putting most of its efforts into budging the Government on its tweak proposals and that we will see a compromise reached very shortly.
Sofia Lind is deputy editor of Pulse. Follow her on Twitter at @sofialind_Pulse or email her at sofialind@cogora.com
‘Past performance of the GPC is not an indicator of success in this area. ‘
Well put and an understatement. I feel very discouraged that we have been unable to negotiate our value within the society and I dont just mean monetary value. We have lost our respect/self respect and every magazine and paper, patient group and organisation/professional or non professional seems to be able to herd us into more and more unwanted corners as they wish, with GPs constantly worrying about their relationships burning themselves up faster and faster. We are one of the professions that our dear patients and colleagues love to hate. We hear nothing about our sec care colleagues in the same vein at all despite the same challenges and same access problems etc etc.
I think we owe a tough stance not only for ourselves, the people we employ, future generation of GPs and our patients too. Afterall, if there isnt a General Practice and a very transactional system left behind everyone will suffer. It is not enough for us to say its alright, I’m retiring anyway!. FFS now is the time to unite-it IS the last stand.
fb SPOT ON.
what is the true value of a GP aka family doctor…. ever heard of the free market?
Nobody appreciates free stuff. The DNAs, unanswered urgent calls, the anxiety at minor things. Our value will come once we go private.
Not enough cohesion / too much self interest.
I am sorry even the comment about Drs retiring used above is an inadvertent example. Could easily flip it to state that it is not good enough to say …… “oh well I am a locum, etc” or “I am a partner and have a mortgage, etc so we can’t strike”
Up to now enough GPs still think that they can hang on and survive using nurses, salaried, more rigid boundaries or enhanced ‘gaming’ of the system. (gaming is not meant to be perjorative).
There will either be a soft or hard landing at the end point. The sad reality is the difference being the amount of harm / casualties amongst the profession (and the patients) due to remaining in an unworkable system. Stress, divorce, time not spent with loved ones, time not spent on GPs own well-being, complaints, baggage of guilt through poor service delivered etc
(Plenty of nurses on tv in tears when reporting effect of working on understaffed ward etc – a larger portion of that feeling is coming GPs way).