England’s GPs vote to take industrial action

Just days after junior doctors in England were offered a cumulative pay rise of 22 per cent, general practitioners across the country have voted in favour of industrial action over funding. Now over 98 per cent of senior unionised GPs have voted to take industrial action, on a turnout of just under 70 per cent. It comes after months of disputes over contract changes that would see community doctors receive a practice funding uplift of just 1.9 per cent. Slamming the sub-inflationary rise, the BMA says that without more support GP surgeries will ‘struggle to stay financially viable…and risk closure’.

This is the first time in 60 years that family doctors have voted for collective action; the last time general practitioners did so was in 1964. But with increasing patient demands and rising costs, many family doctors fear their surgeries are becoming unsustainable.