GPC chair stands down amid tensions over strike threat
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- Published: Wednesday, 03 November 2021 10:51
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Dr Richard Vautrey will step down as UK and England chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee when the committee meets for the first meeting of its new session in November. But the Telegraph reports growing tensions over plans to ballot doctors about taking industrial action over face-to-face appointments.
Under the NHS Plan for GPs and Patients, launched by the Health Secretary last month, practices were told they must “respect preferences” for in-person appointments, with surgeries named and shamed if they failed to offer sufficient access.
The GPC voted to reject the plan and GPs have now been given two weeks to indicate if they would support industrial action.
But GPs are divided over the wisdom of industrial action. Dr Dean Eggitt, who runs Doncaster’s local medical committee, told Pulse magazine that his group did not agree with the BMA GP committee’s position or believe “any form of industrial action at the moment is warranted on this topic”.
Standing down Dr Vautrey, a GP in Leeds, said: “Now is the right time for a new chair to take on this role”, adding that it was a “critical time for the profession”. He has been chairing of the GPC for four years and part of the GPC negotiating/executive team since 2004.
Giving evidence to the Health Select Committee on November 2, Secretary of State Sajid Javid said that as we began to recover from Covid, it was important that patients were able to start having face-to-face consultations, having stayed away during the height of the pandemic.
He said he wanted to work with GPs and accepted that all primary care professionals needed support. But Javid said he had ‘zero tolerance’ to abuse directed at health care staff.
The Secretary of State was answering questions on clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic.
Despite the public furore over lack of access to NHS dentistry, not one member of the Committee thought to ask about this problem that is adversely affecting many of their constituents.
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