Say goodbye to your doctor’s appointment! Patients face months of misery as GPs vote for ‘catastrophic’ industry action that could halve daily appointments
Patients have been in trouble for months after GPs went on strike yesterday, with some wanting to halve the number of available appointments.
More than 8,500 GPs responded to a poll, with 98.3 per cent in favour of action in a funding debate, according to the British Medical Association (BMA).
The militant union, which also represents striking junior doctors, is threatening to bring the NHS to a “standstill” with a series of crippling measures being implemented “slowly but surely”, posing potential health risks to large sections of the population.
Health Minister Wes Streeting warned the unprecedented development would be “punishing” for the population, while experts said the impact was likely to be “catastrophic”.
As part of the action, the BMA will encourage clinics to choose from a list of ten actions, with practices able to choose how many they carry out and when.
This means that GPs limit the number of patients they see per day to 25 and choose not to do work for which they are not formally contracted. Other measures include refusing to share patient data unless it is in the patient’s best interest.
More than 8,500 GPs in England took part in the British Medical Association (BMA) vote, with 98.3 per cent backing the disruption. The health service has urged the public to report for GP care as usual, despite the industrial action. Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured) has also urged GPs not to punish patients
That means that from today BMA GPs will be able to choose from a list of 10 industry actions, such as restricting employment, with GPs free to implement as many as they like. Earlier this week, Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer (pictured), chair of the BMA GP committee, said the action was aimed at ‘bringing the NHS to a standstill very quickly’
Practices could also ignore the limitations of ‘rationing’ by ‘prescribing what is best for the patient’.
This is expected to be the most important collective action by GPs in 60 years. Two out of three GPs of the BMA support this action.
Around three million GP appointments a month could disappear if all GPs bow to the BMA’s demands to reduce the number to just 25 a day. While the daily average is 37, some doctors are currently doing 50.
Health care providers say this will put additional pressure on pharmacies and emergency departments, which are already struggling.
Mr Streeting said: ‘I can understand why GPs wanted to punish the previous government. But taking collective action will only punish patients.
‘I want to reset the relationship between general practitioners and their government.’
Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England, said: ‘Without proactive communication to patients, compliant measures could exacerbate access problems or even deter people from seeking help if they are unsure whether their practice is still open to patients.’
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA’s GP committee for England, said the action – which began immediately after the vote result was announced – would be a ‘slow burn’ rather than a ‘big bang’, adding: ‘GPs are at their wits’ end. This is an act of desperation.
‘We have been unable to provide the care we want for too long. We are witnessing the destruction of the general practice.
‘The era of the general practitioner has been destroyed by the last successive governments and our patients are suffering as a result.’
Earlier this week she said the action could bring the health service “to a standstill soon”, but she also said the action was aimed at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
It is designed to be “easy, durable and effective” because it lasts “week after week after week, month after month after month,” Dr. Bramall-Stainer added.
The BMA said the new GP contract, which sees funding for services increased by 1.9 per cent for 2024/25, means many practices will struggle to remain financially viable.
However, patient groups have called the plans “selfish” and said GPs risk losing public support.
It comes as the government today announced it has added GPs to the Additional Role Remuneration Scheme (ARRS), in the hope that practices will be able to take on 1,000 more doctors this year. Health Secretary Wes Streeting is pictured during a visit to Abbey Road Surgery in north London earlier this month, where he promised to ‘fix the front door of the NHS’ and shift billions of pounds from hospitals to GP practices.
GPs have not taken industrial action since 1964, when GPs submitted their undated resignations to Harold Wilson’s Labour government. But the BMA has recently led strikes by junior doctors (pictured) and consultants, hampering efforts to clear waiting lists that have built up during the pandemic.
GP partners, who own their own practices and make up the majority of GPs, earn an average of £153,400 a year, despite only one in three working full-time.
In addition, official figures from NHS Digital show that GP practices’ income (which comes from their practice profits) has increased by 31 per cent in recent years.
NHS England said the industrial action will last for an “indefinite” period, but practices must still be open from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.
Health authorities advise patients to call 111 for urgent medical help if their GP surgery is unavailable. In the event of a serious or life-threatening emergency, they should call 999.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘There are many aspects of what GPs deliver that go well beyond the contractual obligations they have to meet. This extra workload, and the goodwill of the GPs who deliver it, has been taken for granted for too long.’