Patients in danger from overworked GPs says doctors’ spokesperson as strike threat looms

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Patients are in danger from overworked GPs, a former Royal College president has warned as the result of a ballot on strike action is set to be revealed

Clare Gerada, a former chief for the Royal College of GPs, said British working conditions for general practitioners are dangerous.

Defending GPs’ calls to cap the number of patients they are required to see each day she said: “It is dangerous to see 60-70 patients a day - it really is.”

The London-based GP said practices are so overworked they are “exhausted like Olympic runners at the end of the day”.

She said GPs are paid 30p per patient, adding: “The cost of an apple - and unlike an apple it doesn’t keep the doctor away.”

Dr Gerada said: “I have been a GP for 34 years and I have never seen it as bad.”

The former Royal College President pointed to recent figures suggesting there has been a 20 per cent rise in the number of patients practices see every day.

The BMA considers 25 appointments to be the safe level for a GP - a level practices could use as a cap should they strike

The outcome of a ballot on industrial action is due to be announced on Thursday by the British Medical Association (BMA).

If action goes ahead, GPs will be able to choose from a menu of actions set out by the BMA, according to the GP magazine Pulse, and could bring the NHS to a “standstill”. They may choose to stop performing work they are not formally contracted to do.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Wes Streeting said he could “understand why GPs wanted to punish the previous government”, but warned that “taking collective action will only punish patients”.

Mr Streeting said the previous government failed to recruit enough doctors, leaving GPs overburdened.

The GPs’ strike threat comes after they rejected contract proposals from NHS England which would have seen their contracts rise by just 2 per cent.

Dr Gerada welcomed Mr Streeting’s latest offer but said it is not enough. She agreed he is listening to GPs, but added: “Nothing has changed - we are having more work piled on us, more hoops to go through, more forms to fill in, more patients to see every day.”

On Wednesday ministers announced plans to slash red tape to enable GP surgeries in England to hire more doctors.

Leading medics have campaigned for GP surgeries to be given the freedom to use a staff funding pot to employ more GPs and additional practice nurses.

The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme is a £1.4 billion fund designed to boost GP practice staff including physician associates and pharmacists, but not GPs or practice nurses.

Now the government has announced that practices will be allowed to use the funding pot to recruit newly qualified GPs during 2024/25.

Officials said that the move is an “emergency measure” while the government “works with the profession to identify longer-term solutions to GP unemployment and general practice sustainability”.

It is hoped that the changes will enable the hiring of more than 1,000 newly qualified doctors at GP practices around the country this year, the Department of Health and Social Care estimated.

According to the Royal College of GPs, practices dealt with 20 per cent more appointments in August 2023 compared to August 2019, with 883 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs working.