GP Collective Action

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Communication from Avon Local Medical Committee about GP Collective Action

We hope this letter finds you well. We are writing to let you know about changes to your practice services due to collective action by General Practice in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We have not taken the decision to take part in collective action lightly. We understand the impact this may have on our patients. This letter explains the reasons for it and how it may affect services offered to you in the coming weeks.

Why Collective Action is needed

We are concerned about three main areas:

• Patient Safety: The numbers of patient consultations we complete in a day means that we are not practising as safely as we would like.
• Workforce: The huge workload is making it difficult to recruit and retain staff, and levels of burnout are high. 
• Funding: We are not being funded sufficiently to recruit more staff for the demand we are facing.

What this means for you

You may see changes to appointments and services because we are collectively going to stop doing work that other healthcare providers (HCPs) are contracted and funded to do. For far too long, GP practices have been carrying this admin load, without funding.

When you have been seen by an HCP outside of GP practice (such as in a hospital clinic) we will expect that HCP to fully complete your episode of care. 

• Your HCP will need to complete their own onward referrals, fit notes, investigations and prescribing, as well as responding to any queries about your care with them. This HCP must fully complete your episode of care, without needing to ask GP practices to do any of this work for them. If they have not done so, we will ask you to contact that HCP directly, rather than us. 
• We will only take over the prescribing of medications started by specialists if we are funded for this work. (Many areas of medicine prescribing do have long established funding pathways already and these will continue as usual.) 
• We will not provide monitoring checks for certain conditions, where this should be done by your hospital/specialist team, unless already agreed via established funding and safe monitoring pathways. 
• We will work towards clinicians in general practice having a safe workload. This means they will not see more patients than they can safely manage. This may mean longer waits for routine appointments. If you need urgent care, we will always provide advice, which may involve you being directed to an urgent treatment centre or a pharmacy, depending on what is wrong and whether our appointments are full.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause and ask for your understanding and patience. We are taking every possible step to minimise disruption to your care.

National collective action will set safe limits on General Practice workload and should demonstrate the most urgent areas for reform and funding to those in power. We hope that it will bring about real change so that we can offer you the best possible care in the long run. 

How you can help

Many minor illnesses can be managed by community pharmacy. This short video will tell you about the Pharmacy First scheme.

Visit Health A to Z - NHS for advice on symptoms and treatment options.

Consider phoning NHS 111 to find the best place to get help with your symptoms.

Help yourself stay well by good self-care, including getting a flu and Covid vaccination (if eligible).

Be kind to our staff. They want to help you get the care you need and will do everything they can to do that.

If the collective action impacts your ability to get the help that you need, please contact your local MP Kerry McCarthy by phone 0117 939 9901 or email Kerry.mccarthy.mp@parliament.uk . We need the government to be aware of the impact on local people. 

Looking Ahead

We want all GP practices to remain open and provide the high level of care you deserve. 

We hope this action will bring meaningful and sustainable changes, which benefit our patients and the whole healthcare system.

Thank you for your support, patience, and understanding during this challenging time. 

Published: Oct 9, 2024