GP employment crisis ‘simply bonkers’, says BMA council chair

GPs ‘turning to other jobs to earn a living’ while practices cannot meet demand is ‘simply bonkers’, the BMA council chair has said.

In his opening speech at the union’s Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) in Belfast this morning, Professor Phil Banfield said that ‘now is the time’ to bring ‘the full force’ of the BMA behind general practice.

The conference also voted in favour of a motion calling on the BMA to ‘insist’ that ‘sufficient funding’ is supplied to GMS contract holders, to restore the ‘right’ of GPs to employ the staff ‘they think best’ for their service and to maintain continuity of care.

Professor Banfield said: ‘With record demand on GPs, it has been an act of vandalism to plunge general practice into such dire straits.

‘Nothing highlights this crisis more than finding that a shocking 84% of locum GPs in England are struggling to find work. A third are being forced out of the NHS entirely, driven out by the cheapening of the medical workforce and the substitution of GPs with alternatives that superficially seem less expensive, but in reality cost lives.

‘To have highly qualified doctors turning to other jobs to earn a living, whilst GP practices cannot meet the demands placed on them, is simply bonkers.’

He added that the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) is ‘a Trojan horse sent into the heart of general practice’ to ‘replace and substitute’ doctors.

‘Where we need a physio, fund a physio; where we need a paramedic, fund a paramedic; where we need a doctor – fund a doctor,’ he said.

The conference also voted in favour of taking as a reference a part of the motion calling on the BMA to ‘support any industrial action the GPC may organise’.

GP partners have been urged to vote ‘yes’ to collective action in a BMA ballot that opened last week.  

The union is currently planning for potential GP collective action to commence on 1 August, depending on the result of the ballot which will close on Monday 29 July.

Speaking in favour of the motion, GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer said: ‘General practice has been deliberately broken. Part one [of the motion] refers to the additional roles reimbursement scheme in England, but it’s not just England.

‘Our Scottish, Welsh and especially our Northern Irish colleagues are suffering and indeed all our patients are suffering.

‘Practices have been squeezed to the bone, partners reported an average 23.5% drop in their drawings last winter, compared with the year before.

‘There’s money, there’s always money: there’s 1.4 billion to spend on staff, but you’re not allowed to use it to hire an additional practice nurse. And you’re not allowed to use it to employ an additional GP. And that is why a ballot is open to GP contractors in England until 29 July.’

Last week a BMA survey found that more than 80% of GP locums have reported that they ‘cannot find work’, with over 70% of respondents blaming ARRS ‘for GP unemployment’.