Exclusive The Government’s initial offer for this year’s GP contract includes a 1.9% uplift to GMS baseline funding, Pulse can reveal.
Pulse understands that GPC England chair Katie Bramall-Stainer has written to primary care minister Andrea Leadsom to ask her to intervene in the negotiation.
This comes as other parts of the health service have received funding uplifts of 6% to cover inflationary costs.
In a letter, she said: ‘It is with genuine regret that I write to you today to seek to markedly improve the current grossly inadequate GMS (general medical services) baseline funding increase offer of 1.9% (£178m).
‘By choosing to set aside the compelling body of evidence that GPCE has presented, the starvation of core funding at a practice-level will have devastating consequences on local patient services.’
The letter also said that it is the GPC’s belief ‘that significant numbers of practices’ will have ‘no choice but to make staff redundant and freeze recruitment’, consequently reducing patient services, ‘severely impacting patient access’ and ultimately reducing quality of care.
Dr Bramall-Stainer added: ‘We suspect that we will also see rising numbers of GP contractors/ partnerships being left with no option other than to serve notice on their contracts leading to a slew of practice closures and expensive, wasteful re-procurements around the time when autumn/winter 2024-25 pressures take hold.
‘Each closed practice displaces thousands of patients, and neighbouring practices now have no spare capacity to register such dispersals.’
In a post on X, Dr Bramall-Stainer said she would meet the minister later today.
The GPC is due to meet to discuss the contract offer tomorrow.
Pulse revealed exclusively that the offer will then be put out to referendum by the BMA in the second week of February.
Well that’s why I’m visiting Canada in February to look at jobs
Strike. on the same days as the consultant and junior doctors continue to strike. There is no other option. Nothing else is going to help us.
How can they seriously think this is ok. Consultants and Junior doctors being offered a lot more and still derisory then offer us even less than before. I think the time for talking has to come to an end and we need to join our other healthcare colleagues at this stage.
This is deliberately derisory-they have been in negotiation for months to arrive at this at the end of January.
Nobody can accept 1.9% anywhere in the system and expect to not have a further deteriation in standards of care and take home pay.
All money is being held back for tax cuts with them banking on the fact we will just accept this (as we usually do).
It is a signal that practice based care and contracts and therefore the partnership model is to be allowed to wither.
Locum roles will disappear.
At least this has flushed out the future of primary care for everyone to see and we now know how we will all work over the coming years UNLESS…..
Derisory.. don’t accept it.
HMG brass neck or chutzpah? Here’s hoping KBS will reciprocate likewise and give them the 2 finger salute..
We need undated contract resignations
Clearly the moral is if you are weak and don’t strike this is what you get.
Don’t bleat. Strike
Presume the decimal point has been placed in the wrong bit in this article or a 1 has been missed off and should read 11.9% or 19% 🤔 They are just about to increase minimum wage by 9.8%
This can only be a deliberate and intention act of harm by a faded husk of a government that has less than zero chance of re-election. By poisoning the the NHS well in this way they are seeking to make the next Government’s job as difficult as possible and make them start well below water. Its a cynical abuse of the democratic process.
Only an idiot would imagine that a 1.9% funding increase for Primary care actually funds a 1.9% pay rise for ANY member of staff, not least because of the changes to minimum wage.
1.9… a striking figure
Agree with Bob Hodges.
The aim here is not to help primary care, or even to insult GPs –
The aim is entirely to wreck the NHS and give the new Government (which they assume will not be themselves again) drowning on the first day in office, in the hope of getting back in very soon after!
Needs good publicity to the electorate, and some warnings to the incoming Labour hopefulls.
There is also a good possibility that 1.9 the opening offer, the number gets leaked, we all lose our minds, and eventually feel relief when they offer “more” (3.5%). They understand the psychological concept of anchoring and we ought to be alert to it.
This is just insane, the whole health service is falling down around our ears we are the only semi functional part and only functioning because the enormous amount of unfunded hours worked by GP partners and they decide to give us yet another real time pay cut. I have never been for strike action but this does mean we have no choice
Tbh. Anything less than 10pc is an absolute catastrophe
Continued shrink of GP income and yet an increased demand and shift of contacts to GP services. simply pushing GPs away from taking partnership and moving to big organisations.
I think Mark Sage is spot on. Leak an outrageously low offer so we’re hoodwinked into thinking the eventual 3-4% represents a huge win, with negotiators congratulating themselves on “doubling the award”.
Don’t strike , go private accept the budget but not the contract till it’s gone , let them go into an election turning primary care private. We can the negotiate a return. And the current government can see how many seats they get when people are paying 50 quid for 15 mins of my time.
Dr No Spot on, roll on April.low 50s and going from 9 to 4 sessions and I wont be increasing.MY Industrial action(irreversible) as the BMA has been woefully inadequate in representing us.I’d rather stake shelves in tesco at least you get a discount on your shopping.
Could Pulse ask the drs working for NHS England and the primary care medical directors (plus those working for the Labour party) what their views are especially how they plan to improve services with a cut in spending. they are the people who might make a difference unless their plans are to turn Primary care into the same disaster as dentistry
Sounds awful and it is . Just be aware they may be offering more via access schemes or PCN DES
The plot has always been to starve the core contract and try and force us all ( and the contract) to PCNS.
At least this time we get a ballot on refusing it ( unlike the. Five year deal and PCN DES ( a dark moment for BMA)
If this is true, for the one part of NHS which has not been on strike and by government’s own figures has increased productivity ( unlike hospitals) it’s time to say no and walk away or take industrial action
Resigning the PCN DES en masse in April
would not need a vote and would cause chaos , but I suspect too many of you rely on it for any funding at all!
Need to see the full deal in next week or two!
Still we can console ourselves with the thought that MP’s are getting 7.9% this April. Jolly well deserved for such a hard working lot.
Now, where did I leave my medication?
I am not surprised as this is coming from a system that holds a monopoly on MEDICINE and treats its doctors as CONSCRIPTS.
Therefore if we are told to jump, we have no other options but to JUMP …….. ……… …….. or DESERT.
Unfortunately, we learnt this the hard way after we graduated from medical school.
I have no hope in a new government treating us any better considering the previous abysmal record.