GPs have rejected the General Medical Services contract saying that the funding shortfall will have a detrimental effect on patient care.
GPs in Wales have voted overwhelmingly to reject the General Medical Services contract offered by the Welsh Government for next year. The result was delivered six weeks after the BMA’s committee of GP representatives in Wales voted unanimously to reject the contract.
On a turnout of 68%, 98.7% of respondents – some 1,079 GPs – rejected the new contract proposal. Only 14 doctors voted to accept it.
“The profession has delivered a clear message with this result. We simply cannot keep services going and meet the needs of our patients with less money and fewer resources,” said Gareth Oelmann, chair of the BMA’s Welsh GP committee.
No sustainable future
At the heart of the disagreement is not so much pay, rather it is that the offer fails to secure a sustainable future for GP services.
“If we accept the offer as it is more practices will undoubtedly close leaving patients in greater peril, that’s why GPs from across Wales have taken a stand,” said Oelmann. “For years, the service has been starved of adequate funding which has led to the closure of 100 surgeries since 2012.”
The BMA says that it asked for a sufficient expense award of £8.9 million that allowed practices to cover unavoidable practice costs. Last year’s non-agreed investment did not account for extraordinarily high inflation and created a shortfall of around £6.6 million nationally, it explains.
The shortfall means that practices will need to review or reduce their staffing levels. “This will have a detrimental effect on patient care and access to general practice, as practices will have to function with fewer staff [members],” it said
With fewer surgeries available, GPs are now seeing up to 35% more patients each, leading GPs to burnout, reduce their hours or leave. “This is neither safe nor sustainable,” said Oelmann.
The BMA’s Welsh GP committee, which represents the profession, will now take this mandate to the Welsh Government and ask that the terms on offer are improved. The BMA says that if “the unified voice of Welsh GPs” is ignored, then the BMA will continue with preparations for collective action by GPs.
