GPs call for ballot to consider industrial action

GPs have called on the BMA to ballot the profession on their willingness to take industrial action and to sign undated resignation letters.

GPs at the BMA’s conference of local medical committees (LMCs), the bodies that represent GPs at a local level, in London on Friday 20 May said that the government’s General Practice Forward View, published last month,1 was not an adequate response to the BMA’s “urgent prescription for general practice.”2 A motion said that GPs considered this to be “sufficient grounds” for a trade dispute and that unless the government accepted the urgent prescription within three months the BMA should ballot GPs on their willingness to take industrial action.

They also voted for the BMA to ballot the profession on their willingness to sign undated resignation letters.

The motion also called for the association to ballot GPs on what forms of industrial action they would be prepared to take and to produce a report for practices on which type of industrial action wouldn’t breech their contracts.

Proposing the motion, Jackie Applebee, from Tower Hamlets LMCs, said, “We are at a very, very serious moment. No one even wants to consider industrial action, but today it was announced that the NHS is £3bn [€3.9bn; $4.4bn] in deficit. How much worse can it get? How much more are we going to have to talk to government before they provide any meaningful support for general practice?”

She added, “Are we going to accept the demise of general practice, or do we have the courage to stand up for our profession and our patients? . . . I ask you, conference, if not now, when? Will there be a general practice left to defend if we wait much longer? GP industrial action has never been tested—surely the time is now.”

Kieran Sharrock, from Lincolnshire LMC, said that his LMC had already balloted its members. “They want industrial action. They don’t want to resign: they can’t afford to resign, but they want industrial action.”

Also speaking in favour of the motion, Michelle Drage, chief executive of Londonwide LMCs, said, “Practices are dying right now. We need money and support right now, money for the right staff doing the right things right now.”

Drage added, “The model isn’t broken. The model is being broken by those who want to break it. We are the model, we are doctors . . . And we will stand up for ourselves and what we know to be right—if not now, when?”

Speaking against the motion, Andrew Green, a member of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee, said, “What is the junior [doctors’] greatest strength? It’s unity. What would be our greatest mistake? It is to display disunity. And that is exactly what industrial action at this time would do. We would not get anywhere near that magical 98% [achieved in the BMA’s ballot of junior doctors on industrial action], and that will look like a defeat before we’ve even started.”

Commenting on the debate, Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the General Practitioners Committee, said, “I think it is right that we do find out from the profession exactly their intent.” And commenting on potential industrial action, Nagpaul said, “We need a narrative, and what the juniors had was a very clear narrative about weekend working, about the impossibility of trying to extend five days into seven, and the unfairness of not recognising premium days and out of hours.

“We just need to be sure we can get a narrative. We don’t have quite the same focused narrative, and we need to get one if we are able to explain this to the public.”

Nagpaul also said that during the industrial action taken by GPs over changes to their pensions (in 2012) it was difficult to get unity from the profession. “In many ways, this motion helps us with that, because it gives us an opportunity to understand exactly what GPs are prepared to do.”