Carry on Doctor!
Contrary to some views, they are not going on strike!
There are fears here in the UK that our General Practice doctors (GPs) have voted to go on strike for more pay. Many people believe this will happen soon as a result of an overwhelming majority of the British Medical Association members voting for ‘industrial action’.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer is chair of BMA’s GP committee for England and is reported as saying in an interview with the Evening Standard;
“GPs are at the end of their tether. This is an act of desperation. For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to. We are witnessing general practice being broken. The era of the family doctor has been wiped out by recent consecutive Governments and our patients are suffering as a result.”
This, then, is not as many people think, a demand for an increased salary, though more money will, no doubt, be a part of negotiations with the government. There is also a claim that general practice is suffering from a lack of funding and that, as things are, surgeries all over the country are unable to deliver the service expected of them.
One of the main courses of action by GPs will be a reduction in the number of patients they will agree to consult each day by limiting the appointments they will accept. Currently, GPs see an average of around 37 patients in each working shift — they want to limit this to 25.
The reason given for this is the claim that doctors are nearing professional ‘burn-out’ in that they can’t offer a good enough service to so many needy patients and that all may well suffer as a result.
Dr Bramall-Stainer added that, in her opinion, GP practices were now “struggling to keep the lights on” and that they were finding it difficult to recruit and retain medical staff, in particular doctors. It seems that suitably qualified doctors are not attracted as much as they once were to general practice. Many that are already there are looking to leave, often to head abroad to countries like Canada and New Zealand, where, it would seem, prospects are better.
This action by GPs will, it is claimed by the National Health Service (NHS) Confederation, be ‘catastrophic’ and that “General practice is supporting more patients than before the Covid pandemic so any reduction in activity, such as appointments, will put more pressure on Accident and Emergency departments, [in hospitals] waiting lists and other aspects of care,” (also Evening Standard)
Some GP practices are saying that they have as many as 60 or 70 patient appointments each day and that this is dangerous as most doctors working at this pace will be ‘exhausted’ and unable to deliver the safe service they are there to offer.
A former chief of the Royal College of GPs is also reported as saying these conditions are dangerous and that in her 34 years of general practice, ‘she’s never seen it so bad’.
So, although there is a claim for better working conditions, including better pay, this is not a case of collective greed and a desire to take advantage of a more sympathetic government than the recently evicted regime. It is a desire to step back from the brink of a potential national health disaster and to re-structure the primary care part of the NHS to deliver a better and more effective service.
The BMA have asked GPs to choose from a list of ten actions, including the limiting of daily appointments to a maximum of 25. The others, should you wish to see them, can be found here; (GP contract 2024/25 changes).
None of these suggested actions break any contract GPs have with their employers and they have been asked to consider which they might like to implement. It is not an instruction to carry out the full list.
The BMA is very keen to point out that this action is not a strike, they will not be withdrawing their labour — at least, not in this initial phase of their campaign. They do wish to bring pressure to bear on the government, pointing out that should there be a ‘no response’ and a failure to ‘implement the changes demanded’ NHS Primary Care, and the patients that depend on it, will inevitably suffer.
“General practice should be the front door of the NHS, not the doormat. We don’t want to have to take this next step but must if we’re to stop our services from collapsing completely”.
— Dr Bramall-Stainer — bma.org.uk
This looks to me very much like a case of looking after those who look after us. If our primary care service is sick, maybe even terminally ill, what hope do we, as patients, have?
