GPs back union’s strike action call
Row over face-to-face appointments fuels move to ‘cut workload’
EIGHT in ten GPs have backed taking industrial action as the furious row over face-to-face appointments escalates.
The doctors’ union said last night 84 per cent of family doctors voted in favour of taking steps to reduce their ‘unsustainable’ workload.
And 80 per cent of GPs supported changing the way they reported appointment data – a move campaigners say is an ‘enormous blow to transparency’. It would potentially mean crucial data, such as waiting times and whether patients see doctors in person or via phone, is no longer published or collected.
The ballot was held by the Left-wing British Medical Association after it refused to comply with government plans to increase face-to-face appointments. It is indicative, meaning it was designed to see if there was enough support among doctors to participate in industrial action, rather than triggering a strike itself. The next step would be a statutory ballot – a legal requirement – paving the way for the first industrial action by doctors since the junior doctors’ strike five years ago. Announcing the results, Dr Farah Jameel, head of the BMA’s GPs committee, warned that ‘without us the NHs will fail’.
she added: ‘The results showed that GPs and practice staff are frustrated, struggling and are desperate to see change – it is an overwhelming expression of sentiment, a sentiment of discontent and disappointment. General practice is ready to break, and mark my words, without us the NHs will fail.’
Dr Jameel, who was elected to her post earlier this month, said she was offering the Government a ‘fresh start to step back from the rhetoric of division’.
The BMA has not said if it will hold a statutory ballot.
Dennis Reed, from campaign group silver Voices, said patients were suffering the longer the row continued.
He added: ‘The BMA have shown their cards. Both sides have dug their trenches – instead of lobbing insults at each other, someone needs to step into no-man’s land and a peace.’ The BMA has been in a stand-off with ministers since Health secretary sajid Javid unveiled a ninepoint package of measures to tackle the difficulties of seeing a GP in person.
The £250million plan would mean doctors cannot deny a patient a face-to-face appointment unless there is a good clinical reason, and it would name and shame surgeries which don’t deliver them.
The proposals followed a Daily Mail campaign to improve the levels of appointments held inperson, amid concerns remote appointments were leading to deadly delays in diagnosis.
Before the pandemic 80 per cent of appointments were faceto-face, but this fell below 50 per cent during lockdown.
New monthly figures yesterday showed that 64 per cent of appointments were in-person during October. some 19.4million consultations took place face to face – the highest figure since January 2020. Patient groups said this demonstrated some surgeries were responding to pressure to improve access.