Three quarters of NHS GPS want to strike, poll reveals

THREE quarters of GPS working for the NHS want to go on strike, according to a new poll.

In a survey of 391 family doctors, 72 per cent said they were willing to strike over pay, funding and workload.

Leaders of the doctors’ union said the profession was tired of being “bullied and gaslit” as it considers timing a strike with the general election.

The poll, carried out by GP Online, found 83 per cent of GPS who had voted in favour of industrial action said their pay and wider general practice funding was a key reason they would walk out.

The same number blamed burnout and stress, while 82 per cent said they would strike due to high workloads and 78 per cent said it was due to concerns about patient safety.

While GPS could embark on all-out strikes, the majority are self-employed, which makes walkouts unpalatable.

Previous discussions have centred on“work to rule”, which means doing the minimum contracted, or refusing to comply with particular tasks.

Most GPS are partners, with average annual earnings of £153,000, while most work a three-day week.

In the poll, 84 per cent backed striking in line with the British Medical Association’s (BMA’S) guidance on safe working limits, and three in five family doctors wanted to see partial or complete list closures, where new patients will not be registered for a period.

One anonymous GP said: “It’s a shame that it has come to this but I now feel that the Government will not engage in meaningful discourse without understanding the level of dissatisfaction currently felt by GPS about pay and working conditions.”

It comes days after the BMA’S GP committee held a referendum asking more than 19,000 GP and GP registrars whether they accepted a contract for 2024-25 from the Government and NHS England, with 99.2 per cent voting against it.

The contract was imposed on Monday despite the result of the ballot, which the BMA said had left doctors “frustrated, angry and upset”.

NHS England said the funding increase of £259 million would provide a 2 per cent pay rise for all GPS and practice staff.

Dr Katie Bramall-stainer, BMA GP committee chairman, said the profession was “at boiling point”.

“When I qualified as a GP in 2008, general practice was called the jewel in the crown of the NHS, but general practice has been demeaned, diminished, diluted, bullied and gaslit long enough,” she added.