ALMOST two thirds of GPs want the BMA to ballot the profession over industrial action, a GPonline survey has revealed, as the BMA’s Local Medical Committees (LMCs) prepare an emergency conference next month.
In an exclusive GPonline survey by Pulse magazine of more than 650 GPs, more than 40% said they would support industrial action involving the refusal to carry out non-core work. Almost 40% of GPs said they were prepared to take part in action short of a full strike, such as refusing to carry out all but urgent and emergency work.
Just a quarter of GPs surveyed said they would not support industrial action at all. Support for industrial action by the profession in the face of the ongoing workload, workforce and funding crisis comes ahead of the emergency conference of LMCs next month. Local GP leaders are preparing demands for consideration at the crisis summit in London on 30th January.
An agenda for the LMC crisis conference will be published on 14th January. The BMA GPs Committee (GPC) has said the conference should ‘focus attention on what actions are needed to ensure GPs can deliver a safe and sustainable service’.
President of Doctors in Unite/Medical Practitioners Union Dr Ron Singer said support for action was a reflection of a funding crisis in the NHS. Dr Singer, a former GPC member, said there was ‘no question’ industrial action by GPs was possible if doctors’ leaders focus on a single issue ‘worth going to the wall about’.
‘The reason that is even more of a possibility now is because junior doctors showed that the public is behind them taking industrial action about the state of the NHS focused on a particular issue’, he said, adding: ‘The BMA must take heart from the trail the junior doctors have blazed.’
One GP who responded to the survey said: ‘I have never considered any form of industrial action until now. We are all stretched to breaking point and still they want to put more on us. They want us to be blamed when the NHS collapses.’
• GPs are being told not to refer patients to A&Es in the latest indication of the ‘significant pressure’ on London hospitals this winter. An alert was sent last Tuesday to GPs across north-west London that St Mary’s Hospital, in Paddington, and Charing Cross, in Hammersmith, were near capacity.
Official statistics have revealed that three London trusts ran out of beds on November 30 and five were fully occupied on the first weekend in December. Over the weekend of December 4-6, three trusts had 100 per cent occupancy: London North West Healthcare (which runs Northwick Park and Ealing hospitals), Hillingdon Hospitals, and Imperial College Healthcare (which runs St Mary’s and Charing Cross).
Ironically, Ealing is due to lose its A&E as part of a long-term shake-up of emergency care in the area.
