FAMILY doctors’ leaders are planning a raft of measures, including refusing to sign sick notes, in protest at what they say is the chronic underfunding of the service.
The moves, to be unveiled at an emergency conference at the end of this month, will also include demands for mass resignations from the NHS.
All resolutions passed at the meeting on January 30 are likely to become the official policy of the GP branch of the British Medical Association.
The proposed action follows the first strike by junior hospital doctors in 40 years.
Up to 25,000 patients face the loss of their local GP’s surgery as six practices across the country prepare to close in the next few months.
Dr Zoe Norris, spokeswoman for pressure group GP Survival, said: “Patient safety is being compromised by woeful underfunding of general practice. Patients across the country have no idea how close the end of their own GP service may be.
“We have a duty to speak up and tell them. We have a duty to make the Government engage properly. We cannot allow this dangerous approach to continue any longer and will rule nothing out.”
Chris Hewitt, chief executive of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee, which represents family doctors in the region, said: “Many GPs are working 14 to 15-hour days and catching up on paperwork at the weekends and days off.
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| The moves will be unveiled at an emergency conference at the end of this month |
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| he GPs measures will also include demands for mass resignations from the NHS |
“Most of us would want to get off a plane if the captain announced before take-off that three out of the four jet engines were damaged, that he only had half the crew he needed and most of them had already worked for 60 hours in the past five days. Practices, professionals and managers are running on empty.”
He added: “There is a very real threat of industrial action or of mass resignation from the NHS if a rescue package is not implemented in the coming months.”
The conference, which will be held at Blackfriars, London, will involve delegations from the country’s 90 local GP committees and incorporate more than 1,000 demands.
These include calls for an end to all Government paperwork, including signing sick notes or filling out forms for benefit claims.
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| All resolutions passed on January 30 are likely to become the official policy of the GP branch |
One proposal put forward by Buckinghamshire Local Medical Committee insists the Government must launch an “urgent rescue package” for general practice or face industrial action.
It states if negotiations are unsuccessful GPs should instigate mass resignation and hold a ballot on “what work/ services must cease”.
It also says family doctors should refuse to write sick notes, carry out home visits, look after care home residents or give travel immunisations and advice.
It concludes workload must be reduced to ensure GPs “can provide safe and sustainable care for patients”.
Other proposals include outlawing unsafe 12-hour days and reducing the maximum hours worked to 48 a week.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “We know general practice is under a number of pressures and that is why we are delivering 5,000 more family doctors by 2020 and investing £1billion in general practice infrastructure.
“With NHS England, we have said we will increase funding for primary medical care by 4-5 per cent every year to 2020/21.”
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