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This is one survey you don't want to delete

Posted on 30 January 2013 by Laurence Buckman  20 comments

What is it about some surveys that encourage people to complete them? Are you a natural filler-in or a knee-jerk deleter? Do you simply ignore or frantically start clicking away with a bevy of views? Whatever your natural inclination, the latest BMA survey for GPs on changes to our contract is one that you should not ignore.

As many of you will be aware, the government decided to end negotiations with the BMA about alterations to the GP contract in October 2012 and instead unveiled a raft of proposals that in my view will have a profound impact on practices across England.

Workload will go up, while funding could plummet, with an average practice losing £31,000 a year. It is not a pleasant proposition, not least as north of the border BMA Scotland and the Scottish government have reached a deal that is far better than the one that sits on the table for their English colleagues.

But we now want the views of GPs on the ground about how this imposition will affect them. The results will help inform our response to the English government’s consultation on this issue.

So don’t just delete this survey. Your thoughts really do count! Questions cover a variety of issues. Will practices need to consider getting rid of staff, bringing cuts in pay, or working even longer or harder?  Will you carry on with your present level of involvement with the NHS or are you going to have less time to get involved with your local clinical commissioning group? What about retirement — will you consider going early?

And to help you make you get up to speed about the government’s proposals, the BMA has provided a cupboard full of resources, from roadshows being held across the country, to guides and other online resources, like a ready reckoner so you can calculate the financial impact on your practice.

Every GP needs to complete this survey so that their views can be included. Don’t delete — complete!

Laurence Buckman is chair of the BMA GPs committee

Posted in:  Contracts

Tags:  general practioners committee contracts england scotland clinical commissioning group

Comments

  • Anne

    30 January 2013

    As an older GP, much of the conversation is just about retiring. Contract changes plus pension changes mean that many of us will just go a bit earlier than we might have done. Not a problem for me in a work context but I am concerned about what will happen to me as a patient if we lose heart as a professsion

  • Simon Plant

    30 January 2013

    We really need to be liberated from the NHS, and allowed to compete for work with chemists etc privately. For instance offering flu jabs to those who dont come under the NHS rules. We also need to be able to offer services privately for those procedures that are now excluded from the NHS - for instance cryo and other minor ops. This would allow us to maintain income

  • Andy

    30 January 2013

    I have been to lots of meetings in past about GP contracts. There is a lot of complaining and shouting but when it comes down to it, GPs then roll over. Hence I have no intention of attending any local events on this as the same thing will happen.

    When will the profession realise that you need to stand up to bullies (the government) otherwise they keep coming back for more. Lets learn from the past.

    I am interested in the profession standing up for our patients, quality of care and our work/life balance. primary care is already at its knees, enough is enough. If necessary, lets have plan B back from the original 2004 contract negotiotions. Either put up or shut up. The response to the recent pensions debacle re the strike was half baked, inept and misguided. Lets think smarter than the government for a change.

  • DrWho?

    30 January 2013

    I always thought VSO work was for overseas work NOT overhere................
    The GPC appears to be morphing into an apology for the singer Morrissey, will you be lobbing Gladioli's at the forthcoming roadshow audience?

  • Dr Martin Heath

    30 January 2013

    Yet again this shows that GPs need to take charge of their own workload. GPs should arrange their own pensions and working conditions. We decide our own fees, then if the state wants to have a health service that's free to patients, it will have to reimburse them. The longer GPs allow themselves to be dictated to by the state, the worse it will get.

  • Spleen

    30 January 2013

    I did this a few years ago with the extended hours rip off. All but a few doctors suddenly found their shoes interesting whenever support for action was requested. This profession has made its rancid bed with apathy, fear, timidity and greed. Give me one good reason why I should try and help it when it won't get off its ass and help itself.

  • ravinder aulakh

    30 January 2013

    The thinking about the NHS is all wrong -example todays headline-
    4 hour wait in A&E is considered to be unacceptable -
    No- the problem is the misuse of Accident and Emergency-lack of consideration and selfishness of people who misuse a very valuable resource available to all of us provided without cost or question by hard working professionals .

    I believe that the public need to be educated and politicians need to stop promising things unless they are resourced in terms of funding and manpower

  • TB

    31 January 2013

    I remember the question of whether the government could change the contract unilaterally being discussed at local meetings about the 'New Contract' in 2004 and as I recall we were told by the then GPC this could only happen in very rare and exceptional circumstances.However that which we feared then now seems to be happening.In reality the supposed 'contract' is not a contract at all as one side does'nt seem to have to keep to it even though we have done more than was asked of us.The time has now come to take a very tough line with the government plus minimal engagement with commisioning,just enough to keep the system functioning.Commisioning is anyway turning out to be a farce as it is revealing itself to be just the PCT's and SHA in disguise,the same people have been shuffled around and the wheel has come full circle again.

  • GB

    31 January 2013

    Ravinder
    Perhaps we should adopt Singapore's approach to use of health care
    Singapore is a " fine " place - you are fined 500 dollars for misuing A&E , failing to attnend hospital appointments etc I suspect we have reached the stage in UK when this is the only education the public would recognise

  • Dr C Jones

    31 January 2013

    I am not sure how we could draw back from commissioning as it will still be carried forward by the CSUs.
    However there is something simple we can do, which is to refuse to use Choose & Book. Patients will not be disadvantaged, we just go back to the old system of sending letters. This will interrupt the way the government is using us, via C&B, as pawns in their privatisation plans, and will show the government that we can take concerted action.

  • MA

    1 February 2013

    i dont unerstand we are doing the commisioning and choose and book , both of them dont deliver the expected health and need alot work force inthe practice and increase pracitice expeces.
    we need trasparent honest agndas to improve the care of our patient.

  • Tun

    1 February 2013

    We GPs are not united each other to stand up and fight against these things in the past and in the future, not like dentists, so whatever government wnats to change we have to do it eventually, attending and meeting each other to discuss about this is just as waste which we learned in the past. No BMA or GPC can do anything.

  • Dr N R Gude

    1 February 2013

    I am thinking to leave this country and settle somewhere in Canada or Australia. Not worth as a GP in UK any more.

  • MEG

    4 February 2013

    I am waiting to retire. Only incentive to work is the fear of total retirement. I will still try to keep my private medical insurence since I have lost faith in the NHS

  • Tintin

    5 February 2013

    General Practice already has a capacity problem. There is relentless growth in demand as the population gradually ages, there is a shift of work from secondary care, and even the younger population is getting heavier, so that diabetes has doubled. There has been no resource to provide extra capacity to match the increasing demand. On average GP list sizes are the same as when I started 24 years ago. So the pressure has never been greater. I suspect that the govt / doh are manufacturing a crisis to give them a free hand after the next election, perhaps to impose 7 day opening.
    As our specialty becomes more female in gender and part time in commitment, I doubt that we will have the tenacity to face them down through industrial action. But I wonder if a well timed and co-ordinated move as the election approaches could bear fruit. Unanimous signed but undated letters of resignation from every GP. It would need to be managed carefully to enlist public support, that we are fighting for access and quality for patients, as for at least 10 yrs we have been portrayed in the media as 'overpaid fat cats' !!

  • LH

    5 February 2013

    It so depressing really
    - nothing about the doctor- patient relationship

  • SH

    5 February 2013

    We are set up to fail with the CCG's.Patient's will suffer as this becomes clear . The government knows this, expects us to fail and will salary us. It is up to us to fight this,or accept as we normally do!!

  • Senior Partner

    6 February 2013

    I fear that we have seen the end of the short "Golden Age" of General Practice, at least in England. Beginning with Balint and reaching its zenith in "The Consultation" (Pendleton et al) in 1984, a cohort of motivated and skilled GPs developed and the public got a great deal.
    The last government and this one have eroded so many of the good aspects born from this and threaten to scupper general practice further by making it impossible to maintain the doctor-patient relationship by increasing tasks within the consultation (QOF, C&B etc) while decreasing the time to adapt to these (added time pressures, reduced practice finance, persistent change, commissioning goals etc).
    I was lucky, I enjoyed a superb training by thoughtful and highly skilled GPs, thoroughly enjoyed my career (I am now in the evening of this), and developed great working relationships with like-minded colleagues but fear that few new GPs will be able to say this in 30 years time. So sad.

  • Dr Roper

    14 February 2013

    These are mad times. We work in an area of high deprivation, which is a function of our aging community. Practice is weirding QoF reduces same day access to our surgery - we find this unacceptable. So reducing the value of QoF improves access.
    The other change is that it is possible to start to vision a truely bottom-up health service: One where patients are able to have a voice in identifying their needs, in how to generate local health policies fit for the purpose of meeting these needs and evaluating whether the needs have been met effectively.
    It is like being freed from the yoke of poor public health policies. Ones that increase deprivation.
    But the key anxiety is that we may all be out of business before we can realise this vision. Oh well keep calm and do yoga.
    Nigel

  • TPSB

    19 February 2013

    all the comments I have read so far reflect my own views feelings. I am nearing retirement and have had the best of GP, but worry about what health service will be available to me when I become a patient.

    the model of family practice has been good for GPs and patients, and our role a patient advocate is vital. The current trend is to treat GP as though it were a conveyor belt, and anyone can do anything needed at that moment, and there is the (erroneous) belief that continuity cna be provided through the patient record.

    We could strike or otherwise throw our weight about, but now that every thing is being opened to any qualified (?) provider, this will be an empty threat, and could completely destabilise GP with large companies taking over GP with salaried doctors providing services.

    Sadly, we are less popular than ever, seen as overpaid, and now, at least locally, even being blamed for not doing out of hours any more and therefore causing overcrowded hospitals unable to cope. We can't win, and there is no easy answer; but I fear greatly for the future of once was a great institution: British general practice

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