GPC England (GPCE) are calling on Steve Barclay, the Secretary for Health and Social Care, to reconsider the imposition of this year’s changes to the GP contract from 1 April, which is currently not fit for purpose. In a letter sent to the Health Secretary last week, they urged Mr Barclay to sit back down with them to negotiate a contract that the profession could accept. In their letter they said:

“At this time of unprecedented pressure across general practice, the imposition of such a contract will serve only to undermine further the confidence of the profession in the government to adequately deliver what is needed to maintain a safe and accessible general practice, for both GPs and their patients.”

In their letter they also explained what would be needed to rectify the inadequacy of the contract, including offering support to cover minimum wage uplifts for staff, inflationary rises in energy and medical supplies, and other practice running costs.

The letter to Mr Barclay was published the same week as a report by the Health Foundation laid bare the dire situation facing many GPs in terms of wellbeing, quality of care and service delivery.

Findings include the fact that 71% of GPs described their job as ‘extremely’ or ‘very stressful’ in 2022, up from 60% in 2019, while the percentage of GPs saying they were extremely or very satisfied with the way they were practising medicine fell from 39 to 24% during the same period.

Read more in this online news story

Read about the 2023/24 GP contract changes on the BMA website

View the NHS England GP Contract Change documents