GPs have voted in favour of industrial action over a NHS contract that would force them to offer appointments on Saturdays and up until 8pm on weekdays.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA), who met in Brighton, today asked their union to prepare for opposition to the contract including potential industrial action.
It comes a day after doctors voted for their union to lobby ministers for a 30 per cent pay hike over the next five years in compensation for ‘millions’ of lost earnings since 2008.
The vote specifically called for the BMA to act on a survey last year in which 80 per cent of GPs voted in favour of some form of industrial action, but only 35 per cent actually voted.
Dr Jacqueline Applebee, who also chairs a doctors group in union Unite, presented today’s motion and urged her fellow BMA members to follow in the footsteps of rail union RMT who brought the nation to standstill last week.
‘I know some of you will be worried about industrial action, but how much more can we take,’ she said.
‘We should take our lead from the RMT who have quite rightly said enough is enough.
‘Let’s channel our inner Mick Lynch, please support this motion.’
But the BMA has said the part of motion calling for industrial action is effectively ‘redundant’ as too few GPs responded to the 2021 survey for the union to take action on it.
Dr Jacqueline Applebee who brought the motion to the BMA’s annual meeting today urged members to follow in footsteps of rail workers disruptive industrial action last week’s and ‘channel their inner Mick Lynch’
Mick Lynch is the general secretary of National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) the union behind disruptive rail strikes that brought the nation to a standstill last week (Mr Lynch pictured at a rally during strike action last week)
While the motion for potential industrial action was carried the BMA’s chair of general practice committee in England Dr Farah Jameel warned members that because turnout was so low in a 2021 poll in support of industrial action the union could not act on it
The union’s chair of general practice committee in England, Dr Farah Jameel, told members at the BMA’s annual meeting in Brighton today last year’s ballot was a ‘glorified survey’ and therefore could not form the basis of industrial action.
‘The indicative ballot was just that it was not a formal ballot,’ she said.
‘What it told us is that the majority of the profession did not vote, so we could not act on those results.
‘Let’s call it a “glorified survey”.’
But Dr Applebee said in her closing remarks that doctors shouldn’t shy away from the prospect of taking industrial action.
‘To those of you nervous about industrial action the landscape is changing,’ she said.
‘Even the barristers were on strike last night.
‘We are heading for oblivion if we don’t have the courage to fight for ourselves.’
Her argument won over the BMA members with 57 per cent voting in favour of the union acting on the 2021 poll and opposing the new contract, including taking industrial action ‘if necessary’.
Only 17 per cent of medics voted against with 26 per cent abstaining.
In March NHS England asked family doctors, who earn an average of £100,000 per year, to offer face-to-face appointments from 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, and 9am to 8pm on weekdays by October.
The new NHS England contract means each local hub of GP surgeries, known as Primary Care Networks, must offer a full service to patients during the extended hours, with access to nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists.
The hope is that the increased appointments will boost the number of people able to see their family doctor face to face.
But the contract prompted opposition from GPs with BMA members voting in favour of industrial action last November amid an ongoing row with Government over a lack of face-to-face appointments.
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In the poll of 5,144 GP practices in England eight in 10 doctors said they would be happy not to provide data on the number of patients they see in-person and refuse to write vaccination exemption letters.
But they held off on striking because of low turnout in the poll that saw just 35 per cent of the eligible GP practices vote.
The vote was prompted by a £250million package of measures to get patients more in-person consultations with GPs. At the time Sajid Javid’s blueprint included a scheme which would effectively ‘name and shame’ underperforming surgeries.
At the time the BMA criticised the contract and said NHS England had refused to offer practices reimbursement to cover additional costs for national insurance contributions resulting from the changes, which will lead to cuts in staffing.
Industrial action can take many forms, such as working reduced hours, only performing certain aspects of the job, all the way to ultimate step a strike.
Union rules mean the BMA would need more than 50 per cent of all its GP members to vote in favour of industrial action, something the 2021 poll did not achieve with its 35 per cent turnout.
The call for GPs to follow in the RMT’s footsteps comes after the union mounted a series of disruptive rail strikes — dubbed the worst since the 1970s — which brought the nation to a standstill last week.
Teachers unions and the civil service are also being balloted on potential industrial action to add to Britain’s ‘Summer of Discontent’.
Today’s vote by the BMA follows similar talk of doctors joining ‘picket lines’ over pay that came from the union’s annual meeting yesterday.
Union members voted in favour yesterday of pushing for a whopping 30 per cent pay rise. They believe doctors have been shortchanged by ‘millions’ in real terms since 2008 due to inflation.
In fiery speeches yesterday doctors said they were prepared to join ‘picket lines’ to achieve pay restoration and admitted that industrial action was ‘likely’.
If medics took do opt for industrial action, it will be the first time since the junior doctors strike in 2016.
A dispute with then health secretary Jeremy Hunt over changes to junior doctors’ contracts was the first time in 40 years that England’s medics had taken to the picket lines.
Today’s vote calling for the BMA to organise opposition to the new NHS England contract was just one of three motions on the subject.
Two other motions, one for the union to organise for the withdrawal of GP practices from Primary Care Networks and another for funding for the networks to be added to funding GP services directly were also passed.
These got 61 per cent and 64 per cent of the vote, respectively.
Moves to boost face-to-face appointments comes amid increasing concerns that many Britons are still struggling to see their GPs, who earn an average of £100,000 per year. face-to-face similar to pre-pandemic levels.
Junior doctors have already threatened to strike this year over pay in echoes of the 2016 industrial dispute which saw them walk off the job multipole times in 2016 (pictured)
Official figures show just 63 per cent of consultations were carried out in-person in England in April. At the current rate, it would take until September 2023 to reach the more than 80 per cent of appointments being made in person seen before the pandemic
NHS data shows only 63 per cent of consultations with a family doctor in England were face-to-face in April, compared to more than 80 per cent pre-pandemic.
It comes amid a concern about the country’s supply of GPs with NHS data showing England has also lost the equivalent of 2,000 full-time GPs since 2015 and there are now an average of 2,200 patients per family doctor.
Additionally, a snapshot poll of GPs earlier this month suggested that half of family doctors plan to retire by the age of 60.
The Royal College of GPs said almost half of family doctors are planning to quit by 2027 in a major threat to patient care.
It insists general practice is ‘significantly under-staffed, under-funded and overworked’, leaving the service and profession ‘in crisis’.
In comes over increasing concerns about the availability of family doctors, who earn an average of £100,000 per year, with many Britons struggling to see their GP face-to-face similar to pre-pandemic.
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