The health secretary has asked GPs to ‘stand down’ collective action, while also announcing that he is launching a ‘red tape challenge’ to reduce workload dump on practices.
During a speech at the RCGP conference this morning, Wes Streeting condemned collective action organised by the BMA, as he said that it is ‘in no doubt shutting the door on patients’ and that their care ‘will suffer’.
He said that when the GP Committee returned their ballot result on collective action, he wasn’t ‘remotely surprised’, but that collective action means ‘collective failure’ and that GPs’ message ‘has been received’.
He said: ‘I wanted to send a message that I understand how bad things are and that I’m determined to fix them, but I can’t do this alone. We can only do this together.
‘So I’m asking GPs to stand down collective action and instead work with this new government that is serious about working with you.’
Mr Streeting also announced that the Government is launching ‘a red tape challenge’ to ‘cut down’ on bureaucracy, in a bid to ‘free up GPs’ time to spend with patients’.
The challenge will be led by NHS England’s director of primary care Claire Fuller and Stella Vig, medical director for secondary care.
They will ask GPs, hospitals, and integrated care boards (ICBs) ‘what works well and what needs to change’ before the feedback is considered by a review group made up of doctors in primary and secondary care.
Every ICB and trust will be held to account on progress made in four key areas: onward referrals; complete care; call and recall; and clear points of contact.
It will report back to the health secretary and NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard in the New Year.
Labour had already pledged to cut GP bureaucracy as part of its manifesto promises.
Mr Streeting told the conference: ‘Practices spend as much as 20% of their time on admin and work created by poor communications with secondary care.
‘This is intolerable, that time should be spent with patients. That’s why today I can announce that Amanda Pritchard and I will launch a red tape challenge to bulldoze bureaucracy so GPs are freed up to deliver more appointments.
‘That challenge will be led by Claire Fuller and Stella Vig, primary and secondary care leaders who have their bulldozers at the ready. Tell them what’s working, but more importantly, what needs to change. We will listen, act and solve this problem together.
‘Amanda and I will receive the conclusion of this work in the new year, and NHS England will hold ICBs and trusts to account if they fail to act.’
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: ‘GPs and wider NHS staff go above and beyond everyday to care for patients but they are under immense pressure so it is absolutely right that we find ways to help alleviate that pressure.
‘So together with the Government, I am delighted that we are launching the red tape challenge – from small rural GP practices to large inner-city hospitals, we know there are brilliant initiatives happening in communities across England to prioritise patients over paperwork, but we need to be better at sharing and implementing those ideas across the health service.
‘We know patients are often struggling with timely access to primary care and we are committed to working with general practice teams to address that – so I echo the calls from the secretary of state to step back from collective action so we can focus on fixing the many challenges that GPs face together.’
Collective action began on 1 August after GP partners voted in favour of taking action in protest against contractual terms and funding.
GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer said she agrees with Mr Streeting that general practice is ‘in deep crisis’, but that crisis is ‘right here, right now’.
She said: ‘Practices are collapsing, patients are waiting too long to see us, and we’re still unable to hire enough staff to meet demand.
‘This presents the health secretary with a fresh opportunity to work with us in putting a fair deal on the table to save general practice across England.
‘At the present moment we have no choice but to take actions to prevent even more practice closures – this action is to ensure GP services do only what they should do, and puts the onus back onto NHS commissioners and managers to ensure the rest of the NHS is as productive as it can be, in line with the government’s own review led by Lord Darzi.
‘We want to work with this government to find an end to the crisis – that means taking steps to secure NHS GP practice sustainability, with a new GP contract allowing for more GPs, more practice nurses, and more appointments for patients.’
RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: ‘General practice is the front door of the NHS, but it has faced years of underfunding and neglect and is now seriously struggling.
‘The health secretary’s commitment to increase the proportion of resources going into primary care has the potential to turn things around, but this can only happen if we work together. Additional resources are needed now in general practice, and the forthcoming Budget will be the ideal opportunity to start delivering this.
‘It is not for the RCGP to get involved with contract negotiations or influence if and how practices participate in collective action. No GP will want to restrict the services they provide for their patients – but we have raised significant concerns that the current GP contract is failing to provide GPs and their patients with the support that they need.
‘The college has been clear that we want to see an urgent resolution to the collective action and we urge the Government and the BMA to find a fair outcome that will allow GPs to do their jobs and patients to receive the care they need.’
After the BMA announced the results of its non-statutory ballot, which saw 98.3% of GP partners voting in favour of taking collective action, NHS England said that ICBs should make sure that practices are continuing to meet contractual requirements during the action.
Two weeks after the 1 August start date, Pulse exclusively revealed that almost half of England’s GP practices were already taking some form of collective action, with the most popular option being limiting the number of daily patient contacts.
Anyone who’s been doing this job for a while has heard this all before. Sorry Wes but don’t think this is likely to change many people’s minds – actions are needed not the same promises we’ve heard so many times before.
Heres an idea Wesley. Put your money where your mouth is, implement the changes you promise and then they will be stepped down?
Thats how Industrial action usually works
The really curious thing about this is that the ‘Collective Action’ only amounts to a general stand together to say GPs will not do what it is not their job to do and not in the Contract as it was.
So ‘standing down’ collective action in practice means either changing nothing (or suddenly agreeing to both do and fund out of GP pockets) a load of stuff which GPs are not paid or contracted to do – but often someone else – like secondary care – IS. IE:- no change to what we are currently doing.
However, morally, it would mean abandoning collective bargaining and standing together with our colleagues, in favour of a ‘divided and conquered’ submissive independent GPs. That would be a total defeat, signal the end of the NHS, and leave nobody essentially for the Government to work with to rebuild public healthcare!
Since GPs are not actually ‘striking’, there is nothing really to stand down from apart from standing together.
Do not step back from standing together!
We have heard it before, but it never happens.
Stop CQC visits inspections as all they look at is covered by contracts, statutes and tort so is a huge wate of time. Be rid of NHS performers’ lists and all it bureaucracy list by telling GMC make up specialists as we are in Australia. Our employer has no role acting as a second registering authority (no other doctors suffer this). Make appraisals every three years with an 18-month phone call… Over 75s could be every year (that will include me too soon), I can go on and on….
Sounds like some very “murky and opaque” promises 🤔
Go away Wes and come back when you’ve got something gamechanging to tell us. GPs have not passed “through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm”.
End to workload dump. Give a double digit pay rise, like everyone else.
Then we can start talking about what work we do. If they want to extend out contract, that will come with more money again.!
The only action he is really interested in is the bit about limiting contacts to 25 – and to be honest that is about safety and what is reasonable. The good will that kept us complying with and taking the risk for ridiculous working practices has been set ablaze by the continual grinding down by the previous government and their agents of disruption – the Daily Mail/Telegraph. Its too late Wes. You will need to do all of what you say and increase funding and increase the number of clinicians with a medical degree and sort the IT. Im not holding my breath. Retirement beckons.
“Ouch, ouch- that really hurts!” Says the much older sibling as he absorbs impotent punches from his younger sibling.
Wes is doing the same to us. Collective action? GPs working in unison? Might as well try heading cats. Consultants and junior doctors went on strike. We threaten to only see 25 patients a day but triage anything urgent beyond that.
No one has noticed. What a tragic joke.
We are on our knees out here. Our leaders need to show a bit of backbone.
Quite simply you can end secondary care dumps by adding a tariff to every one of them. Transfer of workload should equal a transfer of funding from secondary to primary care. Have similar arrangements with the private sector and allow GPs to set their own fees. Make the money significant and all of a sudden all this nonsense will either disappear overnight or we will can at least make some money out of the work we already do. It’s not rocket science.
I heard on the radio that part of his plan to reduce GP workload is to give more work to pharmacists! Shame, I thought he might be a rare Health Secretary: one who understood a bit about the NHS.