GPs will strike if Wes Streeting doesn’t listen, warns union

GPs will strike if Wes Streeting does not “listen to us”, a senior union figure has warned.

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, of the British Medical Association (BMA), said there could be further industrial action to come if Mr Streeting, the Health Secretary, does not act rapidly to improve the situation for family doctors.

Surgeries across the country are embarking on work to rule measures designed to bring the NHS to “a standstill” as a protest against “insufficient funding”, with the move following a vote by the BMA over the summer.

Doctors have been told they can “pick and choose” from measures designed to cause chaos across the health service, including a cap on appointments.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday, Dr Bramall-Stainer, who chairs the BMA’s GPs committee, said the action did not amount to a strike, but warned that GPs could take that step if they do not see results from the Government.

She said: “If the Government don’t listen to us… if we don’t see rapid action quickly enough, my worry is that the employed GPs or other employed members of staff, such as practice nurses, may decide to undertake a ballot to undertake industrial action and potentially even strike.”

Dr Bramall-Stainer said GPs’ current action was designed to “protect your local GP service”, rather than harming practices or patients. She also hit back at claims from Mr Streeting that her committee had been “sabre-rattling”.

On Thursday, Mr Streeting told the BBC: “I do not find resistance in the NHS. People are crying out for change, and I have some good conversations with the BMA, actually, on reform. I contrast that with some of the sabre-rattling we’ve seen from the BMA’s GP committee.

“Despite the fact we put £100 million into GP unemployment in the first six weeks of this Government and our determination to grow primary care in general practice as a proportion of NHS budget, we still see sabre-rattling, the unnecessary threat of collective action – which, let’s be clear, would harm patients and put more burden on their colleagues in other parts of the NHS.

“I don’t think that’s where GPs are, actually. I think GPs want to work with this Government. They can see the seriousness of our intent, and GPs really care about their patients. They want, as we do, to rebuild the family-doctor relationship. I urge the BMA to work with us on that, and stop the sabre-rattling.”

‘General practice is collapsing now’

Dr Bramall-Stainer said: “Well, I heard that and I was disappointed, but I can understand the political subtext behind this.

“To suggest that we’re sabre-rattling I don’t think is going to chime with your listeners, who probably will also have experienced immense changes to their local GP and family doctor service.

“We’ve lost 2,000 practices over the past 15 years. That’s 20 per cent of GP surgeries gone. Thousands of GPs have been haemorrhaged from the NHS.

“One in four GPs knows another GP that has taken their own life. My own GP took his own life in 2021, and that’s not sabre-rattling. That is because general practice is collapsing now. We’re not in a position to be able to wait for long-term plans next year or consumer spending reviews.

“Our action isn’t striking. It’s not withdrawing labour or shutting our doors. It’s action that is legally permissible to stop more GP practice closures.”

Last month, the Government confirmed an above-inflation boost of 7.4 per cent to the main funding pot for GPs, which the BMA has said is insufficient.

The union is instead holding out for an uplift of 10.7 per cent in one year, saying this would bring real-terms income back to 2018-19 levels.

Dr Bramall-Stainer warned the funding provided so far by the Government “is still hundreds of millions less than we were in 2018”, and “woefully inadequate”.