GPs across England have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking collective action in protest over funding, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.
In a ballot of 8,500 GPs, 98.3% voted in favour of taking part in one or more examples of collective action.
The result of the ballot means that, from today, the BMA will encourage practices to choose from a list of 10 actions, from which they can choose to implement as few or as many as they think appropriate.
Actions include refusing to share patient data unless it is in the best interests of a patient, referring patients directly to specialist care rather than following longer and more complex NHS processes, and switching off NHS software which tries to cut prescribing costs.
The BMA said that GPs had been ‘repeatedly ignored’ by the government over funding issues.
Of the entire NHS budget, general practices receive 6% of guaranteed funding. The BMA’s GP committee for England (GPCE) believes this needs to gradually increase by 1% year on year, to 15%, while all existing funding is protected across the wider system.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of BMA’s GPCE, said: ‘We had a huge response to this ballot, and the results are clear – GPs are at the end of their tether.
‘This is an act of desperation. For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to.’
Dr Brammall-Stainer added: ‘We are witnessing general practice being broken. The era of the family doctor has been wiped out by recent consecutive governments and our patients are suffering as a result.’
Last month, the BMA asked nurse partners in general practice to share their views on potential collective action by GPs.
While general practice nurses (GPNs) could not vote in the non-statutory ballot, they have been urged to get involved in the BMA’s campaign and become part of its discussion around pay.
They have also been invited to join the discussion on funding and ‘be part of the solution’.
Dr Bramall-Stainer recently expressed the view that GPNs had been ‘ignored’ by the government for the last five years, as well as ‘diminished’ and ‘belittled’.
The news of the ballot result follows confirmation that an incoming uplift to the GP contract should be used to cover a 6% pay rise for GPNs in England.
In addition, just today it was announced that GPs have been added to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) in a bid to address concerns around the recruitment of doctors.
The government said this was an ‘emergency measure’ for 2024-25 and hopes to see the recruitment of more than 1,000 newly qualified GPs.
