Now GPs tell patients: Stay away during doctors’ strike
GPs are refusing to carry out routine appointments during a strike by hospital doctors.
Surgeries across England have told patients they will be seen only in an emergency tomorrow and on the two other days of planned walkouts.
It came as the British Medical Association wrote to its members saying that – despite last-ditch talks due to be held today – the strike was ‘almost inevitable’ and it wanted to make sure that doctors were fully prepared.
Family doctors claim they are expecting a ‘higher demand’ from patients as a result of the strike action in hospitals – even though A&E wards are unlikely to be badly affected.
GP practices have advised patients to stay away unless absolutely necessary.
Many have also published strong messages of support for the striking junior doctors on their websites, prompting claims that they are effectively carrying out ‘sympathy’ action.
Some even encourage patients to sign online petitions and warn them of ‘catastrophic’ consequences for the NHS if the doctors do not get their way.
About 40,000 junior doctors who mostly work in hospitals will stage a walkout tomorrow in protest over their contracts and will treat only emergency patients. The Mail has identified at least 14 GP practices that are not offering routine appointments or are operating a reduced service. They say they are expecting an increased demand from patients who would otherwise go to A&E and need to remain free for emergencies.
But casualty units should run normally tomorrow with doctors still treating urgent patients, and GPs have been told they should not expect an increased demand.
The Queen’s Crescent Surgery and the James Wigg Practice in North West London, tell patients there will be an ‘emergency service only’ and encourage them to sign an online petition in support of the doctors. The Ongar Health Centre in Ongar, Essex, says it will be offering only ‘sit and wait’ appointments ‘in support of the Junior Doctors industrial action’.
The Stenhouse Medical Centre in Nottingham warns patients that appointments may be reduced and says: ‘We are one profession, we stand together.’
Roy Lilley, a health policy analyst, said: ‘It seems as though some GPs have a sinister reason for increasing the pain on the Secretary of State, but the reality is they are only going to cause more disruption for patients.’
Roger Goss, of Patient Concern, said: ‘They should be ashamed of themselves. If they are allowed to get away with this the Government should consider banning health care workers from going on strike, as with the military. It’s nonsensical. Putting patients first has become meaningless.’
Talks between the BMA and the Government resume today via the conciliation service Acas. Junior doctors are also planning two all-out strikes on December 8 and 16 where they will refuse to treat even emergency patients for the first time in the NHS’s history. The row centres on a new contract being imposed by Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, in which junior doctors will carry out more out-of-hours shifts for less money.
A Department of Health spokesman said it was right that GPs prepared for unexpected demand, but it was ‘inappropri- ate for practices to communicate personal views in a way that could distress patients’.
Yesterday, a guide published by the BMA revealed that some Army medics would be covering for junior doctors. It said ‘Armed Forces colleagues will be asked to step in’ and the union later confirmed that ‘a number’ would be working in some hospitals.