GP leaders in England will vote on whether the BMA should ramp up collective action based on concern that it is ‘not having enough impact’.
The national LMCs conference will debate a motion which calls on the GP Committee England ‘to ballot the profession for more significant industrial action’.
This follows three months of GP collective action during which practices have been able to choose from a list of nine options, rather than taking unilateral action.
At the conference in London later this month, LMC leaders will also vote on calls for the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to be opened up to all GPs ‘regardless of qualification and for ARRS monies to be moved into core GP funding.
They will also debate tighter rules around advice and guidance (A&G), including a call for system-wide savings generated by A&G to be ‘shared’ with GP practices.
Another motion criticises the ‘unfunded additional work’ associated with the new medical examiner system which puts an ‘unacceptable burden on GPs’, calling for previous funding for cremation forms to be ‘reinvested’ in the general practice.
Local GP leaders will also debate ‘single-word CQC judgements’ with a motion proposing ‘removal of these ratings altogether’ – a move which the Government ruled out in September, but the CQC later said it was evaluating following an internal review.
Other motions to be voted on at the conference:
- Demand for all ICBs to provide a dedicated patient contact line for those affected by commissioning gaps;
- Rejection of the concept of ‘primary care doctors’ as it is ‘retrograde’;
- Call for all digital tools enabling direct communication with patients to be fully funded by the Government;
- Call to prepare for a ‘fully salaried service’ as partnership will never be funded adequately;
- Demand for introduction of a maximum profit margin cap for pharmaceutical companies to prevent OTC medicines being ‘unnecessarily expensive’;
- Call for pharmacy blood pressure checks to be ‘terminated’ and an end to NHS England ‘pitting GPs and community pharmacy against each other’;
- Call for NHS England to keep GPs ‘at the centre’ of emerging integrated neighbourhood teams, with protected time and appropriate resourcing.
Earlier this month, the GPCE set out out a list of demands for the Government to meet in order to bring an end to GP collective action, including a ‘cast-iron commitment’ to agree and implement a new national GP contract within this parliament.
The list also included a call for GP practice core funding in England to rise by at least £40 per patient for 2025/26, and for the new GP contract to commit to a ‘minimum general practice investment standard’.
Last week’s Budget announced a £22.6bn funding for day-to-day spending on health, with further details of long-term spending plans to be announced in the spring next year following the Government’s Spending Review.
Pulse recently reported on an ICB warning that GP collective action in the area could result in £4.2m in financial losses, particularly due to increases in prescribing costs.
Motion on collective action in full
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY THE CHAIR: That conference applauds the GPCE on their approach, professionalism and persistence in running the campaign to save general practice, and commits to supporting them in encouraging practices to follow GPCE leadership and partake in collective action and:
(i) recognising that collective action is a powerful tool, emphasises that collective action is necessary to safeguard general practice and recommends that GPCE further coordinates general practice to implement those collective actions that are most popular
(ii) acknowledging that ‘restore the core’ is vital for the sustainability and survival of GP practices, urges GPCE to make this a main slogan for campaigns and work starting with
the next contract negotiations
(iii) believing that even more needs to be done to improve the public understanding of the value that GPs provide to England’s health economy and overall patient care, asks BMA and GPDF to jointly agree and fund a rolling public campaign promoting the successes and value of general practice
(iv) is concerned this is not having enough impact to drive the changes needed to ensure the survival of general practice, calls on GPCE to ballot the profession for more significant industrial action.
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Anybody get the feeling that the BMA, LMCs and their conferences are just rubbish. Years of sitting on their ARRS under previous Govt misrule, and now they want to ramp up pressure 🙄.
Give the flipping new Govt a chance to say how much of the “day to day” £22bn is going towards primary care…
@so the bird flew away
It seems like they’ve had ample chance now to correct it if it was really a misunderstanding that there is limited funding for general practice and that we’re not getting reimbursed for business rates changes. I’d very gladly be proved wrong but I don’t hold out much hope.
JK, I think there is reason to hope. By writing “primary care” I hoped to distinguish it from only GP contractors’ interests and to also cover the interests of the whole primary care team, nurses included – in my city, 2/3 of GPs are non-contractors. For me, better funding so that continuity of care can be provided by the PHCT is of the most importance. So I reckon the LMCs could wait a bit and see the details of the £22bn spend before now belatedly rattling their sabres, even though the LMCs did pretty much sweet FA when the previous Govt screwed over the GP service with help from the Daily Hatemail.
@so the bird flew away. OK, so BMA, LMC, their conferences – all are rubbish. Meanwhile, what did you do to change it all?
SK, to have an opinion is sovereign. I’ve expressed mine. What’s yours? If you want to ask a personal question, rhetorical or not, then at least declare any conflict of interest you have, eg whether you’re on any LMC board.
By the way, one of the things I did is pay BMA subs for over 3 decades, thank you.