GPs TO VOTE ON CLOSING THEIR DOORS AT JUST 5PM

■ Leaders call for limit on daily appointments ■ Patient groups blast plans as ‘unacceptable’

GPs are set to vote on cutting their opening hours to 9am to 5pm.

They are also being asked to back a limit on their number of daily appointments.

The proposals have been tabled by a group of doctors for debate at a national conference next month.

Calling for urgent action to reduce their workloads, they warned there were not enough GPs to cope with demand. If the motion passes, they want to lobby NHS England to make the changes. Current ‘core opening hours’ in general practice are 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday.

Doctors say the move would encourage them to stay in the NHS and boost their wellbeing, allowing them to provide a better, safer service.

But patient groups described the plan as ‘unacceptable’ and warned it would leave more patients unable to access the care they need.

Up to 365 elected GPs will consider the motion at the annual conference of local medical committees next month. The statutory body is recognised as the professional organisation representing individual family doctors and GP practices.

Its opinion helps shape both British Medical Association policy and its

negotiations with NHS England on GP contracts. A motion proposed by Avon LMC, whose GPs look after a million patients across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, says: ‘Urgent action should be taken to manage the workload/workforce mismatch within general practice and demands that the core GP contract is reduced to the hours of 09.00 to 17.00.’

Surgeries are generally expected to offer a comprehensive service between core hours, although there is some flexibility to account for local demand. Some practices also take extra NHS funding to offer extended services, with longer opening times.

Another motion to be debated at the conference calls for the BMA to ‘further develop, publicise and strongly advocate worked-up plans to introduce safe workload limits’, meaning there could be a cap on the number of patients an individual GP saw each day.

Other motions claim the public have come out of the pandemic with ‘unrealistic expectations of general practice’ and call for an ‘education campaign for patients’ to encourage them to take more care of themselves and to make more use of pharmacies.

But Dennis Reed of Silver Voices, which campaigns for elderly Britons, said: ‘The proposal to reduce opening hours and limit appointments is unacceptable. We hear every day from patients who are struggling to see their GP or can only secure an appointment for a few weeks’ time.

‘Further reducing access in this way will drive more patients to A&E, which are already overstretched, or leave people without the care they need.

‘Working families appreciate the earlier opening times and later closing times and reducing these will cause inconvenience or lead to them missing out.’ Richard Vautrey, former chairman of the BMA’s GP committee, insisted there were too few GPs.

‘Reducing core hours may improve GP wellbeing, encouraging more doctors into the profession and prevent more from leaving,’ he said.

‘Patients seen during these hours may also receive better, safer care as doctors may feel less stretched.

‘However, the demand will still be there and it will mean more patients going without the care they need, so it is not the solution to the current problems. What we really need is more GPs in order to improve patient access.’

The NHS in England has lost the equivalent of 2,000 full-time GPs since 2015.

Dr Rachel Ward, of the Rebuild General Practice campaign, said: ‘GP workload is at an unmanageable and unsafe level.

‘As a doctor who came into general practice to look after patients, it terrifies me that GPs are currently delivering many more appointments per day above what is considered the safe limit.

‘GPs and patients want the same thing – to give and receive the best healthcare – and to do that we need more GPs so we have more time to care.’

Patients have often struggled to get care ‘out of hours’ after Tony Blair’s government gave family doctors the power to opt out of working evenings and weekends.

Under a new contract coming into effect from October, GPs will have to offer appointments until 8pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to 5pm on Saturdays.

The BMA reacted with fury to the contract, which was imposed by NHS England without the union’s support last month after negotiations collapsed.

Appointments during evening and weekend hours must be available within every group of GP practices.

‘Leaving people without the care they need’