Almost a third of GPs could shut for a week in cash row

Almost a third of GPs could shut for a week in cash row if Government refuses to increase their funding next year

• The move would see GPs join consultants and junior doctors in industrial action 
• On Thursday, thousands of consultants in England staged a 48-hour walk out

Almost a third of GP partners in England would consider shutting their surgeries for a week if the Government refuses to increase their funding next year, a survey suggests.

Some 31 per cent said they would be open to the move – which would see them join consultants and junior doctors in taking industrial action – if they do not get an uplift for the 2024/25 NHS contract, a poll carried out in June by GP magazine Pulse revealed.

Of the 362 questioned, 54 per cent said they would consider closing for a day and 61 per cent would not rule out diverting on-the-day or urgent cases to the 111 hotline or A&E, while nearly 46 per cent said they would be open to providing undated resignations.

Dr Pete Deveson, a GP in Surrey, said he would be ‘delighted’ to join striking junior and consultant colleagues to improve pay and conditions ‘if such action could be effectively co-ordinated by the British Medical Association’.

On Thursday, thousands of consultants in England staged a 48-hour strike over pay, resulting in thousands of appointments being postponed. The strike came just two days after a five-day walkout by their junior counterparts. But other family doctors voiced their concerns over such a move.

Some 31 per cent said they would consider shutting their surgeries for a week – a move which would see them join consultants and junior doctors in taking industrial action

One GP, who did not want to be named, said: ‘Industrial action is difficult – we do not have public opinion on our side at present. The workload is already overwhelming. Stopping for a day would just add to work the following few days. I would not want to put patients at risk or overload secondary care.’

By shutting surgeries, GP partners would incur a financial hit as their funding would be withdrawn but they would still need to pay staff salaries. Negotiations for next year’s GP contract in England are set to begin. It would come into effect from April.

Earlier this month, Rishi Sunak offered millions of public sector workers, including junior doctors, salaried GPs and other staff, a bumper 6 per cent pay rise in a bid to stave off disruptive strikes that are hampering efforts to reduce NHS waiting times.

The Government said that GP practices will receive extra funding, backdated to April, to cover the pay rise, which it expected to be ‘passed on promptly to all general practice staff’. But it also said that GP partners are still subject to the five-year funding deal agreed in 2019.