Now GPs plot strike action in row over working weekends
DOCTORS have voted in favour of industrial action over a GP contract that forces them to open at evenings and weekends.
Medics yesterday passed a motion agreeing to ‘organise opposition’ to the new contract, including ‘industrial action, if necessary’.
Proposing the motion at the British Medical Association annual conference, Dr Jacqueline Applebee, a GP from Tower Hamlets in east London, said: ‘The new contracts have already effectively been imposed. But that doesn’t mean that GPs are powerless to act.’
Doctors would need to be balloted again before any specific action could be taken. Under the contract GPs are required to provide full services from 9am to 5pm on Saturdays and until 8pm on weekdays, from October.
Doctors also argue that the terms – which require them to work in groups of practices called Primary Care Networks – are too inflexible, overly bureaucratic and take power away from GPs to decide how to allocate funding.
They fear the changes are a move towards stripping GPs of their right to be self- employed and manage practices as their own businesses.
it comes after a separate motion passed on Monday called for strike action from all doctors unless ministers agree to a pay rise of up to 30 per cent over five years.
The Fire Brigades Union is also warning of strikes after its executive rejected a pay rise offer of 2 per cent. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said of the pay offer: ‘This would deliver a further cut in real wages... in the midst of the cost-ofliving crisis.’
Meanwhile Transport Secretary Grant Shapps yesterday unveiled £1billion to install digital signalling between London and the Midlands on the east Coast Main Line.
it will allow more trains to run along the route during normal times and strikes by rail workers, limiting the damage done by walkouts. n GPs should be paid more if they ensure patients see the same doctor at each appointment, a report claims. The royal College of GPs wants the NHS to offer incentives to increase ‘continuity of care’ rates.