Jamal Elaheebocus explains why GPs industrial action is necessary amid buckling services and closing practices

While Rachel Reeves was laying the ground for continued austerity in parliament on Monday, GPs were overwhelmingly voting for industrial action to send a clear message to the government: General Practice has been broken.

The result of the non-statutory ballot was a resounding one; 98.3% of GPs voted for industrial action on a 70% turnout. For a profession that has not taken collective action since 1964, this is a sign of how desperate the situation is. As the BMA’s GP leader Dr Katie Brammal-Stainer said: ‘GPs are at the end of their tether. This is an act of desperation. For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to.’

Work-to-rule action has begun immediately, with a range of possible actions suggested by the BMA. These include capping the number of patients each doctor sees per day to 25, which is the maximum safe level recommended by the European Union of GPs. Other actions include stopping the rationing of referrals and investigations, withdrawing permission for data sharing agreements which are not used for direct care, and switching off Medicines Optimisation Software, which is used to make financial savings. It will be up to individual GP practices to decide which action to take.

The results show there is real anger among GPs and an appetite for taking action and this is clear to see everywhere. As many as 99.2% of GPs rejected the proposed 2024/25 contract in April.

I visited my local GP practice on Wednesday, where there were BMA posters all over the practice with information on why GPs are taking action and the dire financial situation that practices are in. On the digital displays, in between NHS information slides were slides reading ‘General Practice is being broken’ and ‘GPs are on your side’.

And it is obvious to anyone who interacts with NHS primary care why this action is being taken. Doctors are seeing over forty patients a day, GP numbers are stagnant, the government has failed on recruitment and there are 1,694 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs than there were in September 2015. Meanwhile, patient numbers are soaring, and each practitioner is looking after 354 more patients than in 2015, an increase of 18%.

On top of this, funding for practices is falling in real terms. GP practices act essentially as independent businesses, receiving a lump sum from the NHS each year to operate. Practices have lost £659 million of funding due to inflation since 2018/19 and in April, the government offered a measly 1.9% uplift in funding, despite the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (DDRB) recommending a 6% uplift.

The new government is saying it will deliver the 6% uplift, but it may not be soon enough to stop practices having to close and hand contracts back. Already, over 1,300 practices have either closed or merged in the past decade.

This action will have a serious impact on the NHS as a whole. It will increase pressure on A&E services and pharmacies, and disrupt referrals to hospitals for tests and investigations. The fact that a work-to-rule action alone will have such a significant impact shows the scale of GPs’ workload and how unsustainable the situation is.

The victory for the junior doctors after their strike should give family doctors confidence that they can win this and can secure the funding that is desperately needed. Above all, it is only action like this which can rescue the NHS from the crisis it is in and force the government to change course away from austerity and backdoor privatisation of the NHS.