Family doctors in England will stage their first industrial action in 60 years, their union announced on Thursday, providing a headache for Britain’s new Labour government as it seeks to end strikes.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said that 98 per cent of more than 8,500 general practitioners (GPs) had voted in favour of collective action because of a row over funding.
It would begin immediately and could last for months, doctors have warned.
The union has said it could bring the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) — already reeling from years of underfunding and the fallout from the Covid pandemic — to a “standstill very quickly”.
The government and the BMA struck an agreement this week to end strikes in England by junior doctors — medics below specialist, consultant-level working in hospitals.
Labour, elected on July 4 in a landslide general election win, has made turning around the crisis-hit NHS a priority, pledging to tackle long waiting times for appointments and surgery and an exodus of professionals leaving the service.
Key to that is ending long-running industrial disputes sparked by soaring inflation which dogged the previous Conservative administration.
The BMA said that under the new action GPs could limit the number of patients they see each day to 25, down from sometimes more than 40.
Surgeries will also be able to choose not to perform work they are formally contracted to do.
“This is an act of desperation. For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to,” said Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA committee that represents GPs in England.
The BMA said the new GP contract, which will see services given a 1.9 per cent funding increase for 2024-25, means many surgeries will struggle to stay financially viable.
British media reported that the last time GPs took collective action was in 1964.
The action will not affect Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland where healthcare is run by local administrations.
The government and BMA on Monday agreed a 22.3 per cent pay rise to end the dispute with junior doctors, which had included the longest walkout — totalling six days — in the seven-decade history of the NHS.