GPs have voted to consider industrial action in a row over a contract offer that includes Saturday working.
The decision was made by British Medical Association (BMA) union members at their annual meeting. Of those balloted, 57% voted in favour of opposing new Primary Care Network (PCN) contracts. PCNs are groups of GP practices that work together in local areas. Around 99% of GPs are part of a PCN, the NHS says.
They voted to “organise opposition” to the contract. That could include "industrial action if necessary” although another vote will be required to push ahead with any industrial action.
The BMA has previously said it is "bitterly disappointed" at the prospect of a new contract that would require GPs to provide a full Saturday service between 9am and 5pm from October.
Read more: AA slams high petrol prices as 'pump fiction'
Dr Jacqueline Applebee, who proposed the motion to take industrial action, said GPs should follow the lead of the RMT, who led a rail strike last week in a fight over pay, job cuts and conditions, the Telegraph states.
The vote does not mean the doctors will definitely go ahead with industrial action, and any industrial action does not necessarily mean doctors will strike down tools like the RMT. GPs could, for example, reduce their working hours.
GP practices in Primary Care Networks (PCN) could also voluntarily leave their Direct Enhanced Services (DES) contracts lawfully.
Dr Kieran Sharrock, deputy chair of England’s GP committee at the BMA, said: “It’s clear from this result that there are ever-growing concerns about how well PCNs are actually working, and whether practices can provide the safe, quality care they want to for their patients within the constraints of the current NHS-system.
"In September, almost half of respondents to a BMA survey said that the introduction of PCNs had either 'slightly' or ‘significantly increased’ their workload. This was before NHSEI imposed unagreed contract changes in March 2022, which increased practice workload without a commensurate increase in GP numbers, despite objections from GPCE. This all comes at a time of mass GP shortages, the extent to which is entirely unknown at a national and local level due a lack of workforce planning, an immense backlog of care from the pandemic and increasing patient demand as our population continues to expand and live longer into old age.
"It’s not currently clear how many practices would withdraw from their PCN, but the Association will work to provide tools to help surgeries to assess what the impact of withdrawal would be, and, alongside Local Medical Committees, work out what ongoing support would be needed for any practice that does choose to withdraw.
"The BMA will also continue to regularly engage with the GP profession to determine what their views are on the future of the core contract, and what its instruction will be if contracts changes – like the PCN requirements for 2022/23 - continue to be imposed without prior agreement with GPCE and the wider GP profession."
Since 2008, doctors' pay has dropped 30% when compared against RPI inflation, which is an index of prices. Earlier this week, the BMA called for a 30% pay rise for all doctors. GPs earn around £100,000 a year, but junior doctors are paid between £29,000 and £58,000 per year, the Telegraph reports.
The NHS has yet to comment.
Read next:
