GPs vs. Labour: GPs Down Stethoscope as Healthcare Showdown Begins

Labour’s Healthcare Gamble: GPs Down Stethoscopes Amid Contract Dispute

For the first time in six decades, these pillars of primary care have decided to down stethoscopes and pick up placards.

The British Medical Association (BMA) reports that over 8,500 GPs participated in the vote, with an astounding 98.3% backing collective action. This strike, scheduled to begin next Thursday, could potentially last for months, significantly impacting the National Health Service (NHS).

The root of this conflict lies in the rejection of a national contract that offered GPs a mere 2% increase in salary and contract amount. In response, the BMA has provided members with ten options for action, including limiting daily appointments to 25 (compared to the current 60-70 patients some GPs see daily), refusing to share patient data, and bypassing NHS processes for specialist referrals.

Healthcare leaders and experts warn that this action could be “catastrophic” for the NHS, with think tank The King’s Fund predicting that the strikes will “hit patients hard.” The potential consequences include longer wait times to see a GP, increased pressure on A&E departments, and ultimately, a decline in the quality of care.

Mr Streeting said the previous government had failed to recruit enough doctors, leaving GPs “overburdened” while 1.4 million patients wait more than a month for an appointment.

The Health Secretary pledged to slash red tape to bring an extra 1,000 GPs into work this year, strip out many “box-ticking” targets, and to reward the family doctor relationship, so patients can see the same doctor.

“I can understand why GPs wanted to punish the previous government. But taking collective action will only punish patients. The Conservatives already got the kicking they deserved at the general election,” he writes.

“I want to reset the relationship between GPs and their Government. We have an historic opportunity to be the generation that took our NHS from the worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet and made it fit for the future. I’m asking GPs to work with us, so we can rebuild the NHS and deliver the service patients deserve,” he added.

But let’s be realistic the numbers are staggering: 98.3% of GPs backed this collective action. It’s the kind of majority that would make even Wes Streeting wobble on his Twitter and put to bed his constant gaslighting. When you’re offering a measly 2% increase in salary while inflation gallops ahead like a runaway horse, what else did he expect?

From Stethoscopes to Placards: GPs Demand Fair Treatment

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chairwoman of the BMA’s England General Practitioners Committee, has stated that this action could bring the NHS to a “standstill very quickly.” However, medics emphasise that their intent is not to make patients “piggy in the middle” but to direct their action at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The BMA argues that the new GP contract, offering a 1.9% funding increase for 2024/25, leaves many surgeries struggling to remain financially viable. A referendum conducted by the BMA found that 99% of 19,000 GPs rejected this contract.

While NHS England urges patients to continue seeking care despite the strikes, the situation remains tense. The BMA’s list of ten actions has been designed to avoid breaching contractual agreements, but the impact on patient care could still be significant.

Let’s savour the irony for a moment, shall we? A Labour government, supposedly the champion of workers’ rights, now finds itself facing a revolt from the very pillars of our healthcare system. You can almost hear Nye Bevan spinning in his grave fast enough to power the heating of a cold pensioners’ home on winter’s night.

Labour’s Political Choices

But fear not, citizens! For while your GP might struggle to see you, rest assured that somewhere in Ukraine, a UK-made missile is being launched with the aid of your tax pounds. It’s heartwarming, isn’t it? To know that while you shiver in your unheated home, waiting months for a doctor’s appointment, your government is ensuring that the military-industrial complex remains well-fed. It’s a curious sort of democratic socialism that prioritises proxy wars over pensioners, wouldn’t you say?

This GP strike comes on the heels of a recent development in junior doctors‘ pay negotiations. On July 28, 2024, the government announced a new offer for junior doctors, reported as a 22% average pay increase over two years. The BMA has recommended this offer to its members, who will vote on the deal. This substantial offer to junior doctors has led to speculation that nurses, who are set to receive only a 5.5% increase this year, may seek to renegotiate their pay deal.

In the meantime, I suggest we all start brushing up on our first-aid skills. It seems we might need them in the coming months. And who knows? Perhaps by the time you finish reading this, Labour will have realised we are a sovereign nation that prints its own money and finds that evasive magic money tree to shake. One can only hope it bears fruit before winter sets in now they’ve taken the winter fuel payments of our pensioners.

Either way, it seems the only prescription for this malady is a healthy dose of common sense – a treatment that appears to be in chronically short supply in the corridors of power.

Paul Knaggs

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