You may be aware of a recent overwhelming vote by GPs to reject the contract offered to them by NHS England.
The outcome of this vote means that GPs across the country are in support of collective action to stand against the lack of adequate funding in general practice. This lack of funding is directly to the detriment of you – our patients.
This has been a difficult decision for the partners at the Medical Unit, but we feel we have to support this action in order to advocate for fair funding for general practice – to make it easier for you to see a GP when you need to and receive the care you should.
Without fair funding, the service we provide is unsustainable. Despite our very best efforts, we continue to see GP practices close across the UK. There are 6 million more patients than there were in 2018, with 2000 fewer full time equivalent GPs to care for them.
Our funding levels are significantly lower than in 2018 – we receive just 30p per patient per day to provide GP services – and this must pay for everything.
In the last 8 years, Primary Care funding has fallen by 20% - and yet we offer 20% more appointments than we did 8 years ago. General practice receives 5.6% of the total NHS budget, despite providing 84% of patient contacts with the NHS every single day.
We strongly believe that general practice should receive a fairer share of the NHS budget. This is not about an increase in wages for GP’s – it is about adequately funding a service which is essential for the NHS to function and giving GP’s the ability to continue to provide enough appointments, employ enough doctors and clinicians, and fundamentally, to keep their GP surgeries open.
What will this mean for you?
We are trying our utmost to support this action with the minimum disruption to your care here at Measham Medical Unit.
One of the key issues is the volume of patient contacts GPs have per working day – it has been recommended by the British Medical Association that GPs have a maximum of 25 patient contacts in a day, to maintain a safe level of working. On some days, GPs at Measham will have up to 80 patient contacts in a day.
Part of the collective action is that GPs will only have a maximum of 25 patient contacts per working day. This will affect the number of appointments we have available at Measham. When you ring for an appointment, you may be told that the surgery is at capacity for the day – this means that all clinicians have had 25 patient contacts and there is no availability left for that day.
Our receptionists will advise you of your other options for medical attention on the same day, with services that are funded to provide this same day care.
We understand that being told there are no appointments is frustrating. It is frustrating for us too. But we must draw the line somewhere, and we have to provide safe care for the patients we do see.
We hope you understand that we are taking this action to ensure that general practice locally, in Leicestershire and across England is there for our patients in years to come.
You will still be able to come to the ‘same day, walk in’ blood test clinic as usual.
Referrals will still be sent when required.
You will still be able to make an online, telephone or face to face appointment, both on the day and forward booking (until capacity is reached) – depending on your preference.
Dispensary opening hours will not change.
Surgery opening hours will not change.
Our highly trained reception team will continue to ask some questions regarding your need for an appointment, to try to make the most appropriate appointment for you or to signpost you to a more suitable service (i.e. Walk in centre, minor injuries unit, pharmacy etc.).
Other actions taken as part of the collective stand are directed at how we work with secondary care and other service providers and will hopefully not impact individual care at all.
