Patients face months of misery after GPs yesterday began a strike that will see some halve available appointments.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said more than 8,500 GPs responded to a ballot, with 98.3 per cent in favour of taking action in a dispute over funding.
In a move that will pose potential health risks to large sections of the population, the militant union, which also represents striking junior doctors, is threatening to bring the NHS to a “standstill” with a catalogue of crippling measures implemented at a “slow burn”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned the unprecedented development would be “punishing” for the public, while experts said the impact was likely to be “catastrophic”.
As part of the action, the BMA will encourage practices to choose from a list of ten actions, with practices able to choose how many to implement and when.
These include GPs limiting the number of patients they see each day to 25 and choosing not to undertake tasks for which they are not formally contracted. Other measures include refusing to share patient data unless it is in the best interest of the patient.
More than 8,500 GPs in England took part in the British Medical Association (BMA) vote, with 98.3 per cent backing the halt. The health service has asked people to continue to go to their GPs as usual, despite the industrial action. Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured) has also urged GPs not to punish patients.
This means that from today, BMA GPs will be able to choose from a list of 10 strike measures, including job caps and the ability for GPs to implement as many as they like. Earlier this week, Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer (pictured), chair of the BMA GP committee, said the move was aimed at “bringing the NHS to a standstill very quickly”.
It is expected to be the largest class action by family doctors in 60 years (file photo)
Practices could also potentially ignore “rationing” restrictions by “prescribing what is best for the patient.”
It is expected to be the biggest industrial action by GPs in 60 years, having been backed by two out of three BMA GPs.
Up to three million GP consultations a month could be eliminated if all GPs were to comply with the BMA’s demands to reduce the number to just 25 consultations a day. While the average daily number is 37, some GPs currently carry out 50.
Health leaders say this will add additional pressure to already strained pharmacies and emergency services.
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 restore the relationship between GPs and their government.”
Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England, said: “Without proactive communications with patients, business as usual could exacerbate access issues or even deter people from seeking help altogether if they are unsure whether their surgery 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 process” rather than a “big bang”, adding: “GPs are at the end of their rope. This is an act of desperation.
‘For too long we have not been able to provide the care we want. We are witnessing the failure of general medicine.
‘The era of the family doctor has been eliminated by the last consecutive governments and our patients are suffering the consequences.’
Earlier this week, he said the move could lead to a “very rapid shutdown of the health service” but said the move was aimed at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
It is designed to be “easy, sustainable and effective” because it could last “week after week, month after month,” Dr Bramall-Stainer added.
The BMA said the new GP contract, which will see services receive a 1.9 per cent funding increase by 2024/25, means many surgeries will struggle to remain financially viable.
But patient groups have branded the plans “self-serving” and said GPs risk losing public support.
The Government announced today that it had added GPs to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), in the hope that practices will be able to recruit 1,000 more doctors this year. Pictured is Health Secretary Wes Streeting during a visit to Abbey Road Surgery in north London earlier this month, where he pledged to “fix the front door to the NHS” and divert billions of pounds from hospitals to GP practices.
GPs have not taken industrial action since 1964, when family doctors tendered their undated resignations to Harold Wilson’s Labour government. But the BMA has led recent strikes by junior doctors (pictured) and consultants, hampering efforts to clear waiting lists that built up during the pandemic.
GP partners, who own their practices and make up the majority of family doctors, earn an average of £153,400 a year, despite only one in three working full-time.
Furthermore, official NHS Digital figures show that GP partners have seen their earnings (taken from practice profits) rise by 31 per cent in recent years.
NHS England said the industrial action will last for an “indefinite” period of time, but that surgeries must still open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday.
Health chiefs are advising patients to use 111 for urgent medical help when their GP is unavailable and, if it is a serious or life-threatening emergency, to call 999.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the Royal College of GPs, said: “There are many aspects of what GPs provide that go far beyond the contractual requirements they have, and this additional workload and the goodwill of the GPs who provide it have been taken for granted for too long.”