PRESS RELEASE 21th February 2016:
GPSurvival response to the 2016/17 GP Contract
On the 19th February the DoH and GPC released the outcome of negotiations for the 2016/17 GP contract.
The 1% uplift in funding to General Practice will be trumpeted as ‘a good news’ story by the Department of Health. When looked at in context, however, it still leaves General Practice in a perilous State Of Emergency.
This contract adjustment will do nothing to dissuade GPs from retiring in their droves, and even less to persuade newly qualified doctors to take up a career in General Practice.
The wider picture reveals a diminishing NHS budget that now relegates the UK to 13th out of 15 in a league table of European neighbours, in terms of Healthcare spend as a proportion of GDP.
Whilst the NHS budget lessens in real terms, General Practice’s slice has shrunk from 11% in 2006 to less than 8.5%. Furthermore, the ongoing bitter dispute between the Junior Doctors and the DoH is testament to the low regard that the medical profession is held in by this government.
Seen in this light, a 1% net pay uplift looks suspiciously like an attempt to rearrange deck-chairs on The Titanic. To paraphrase those words that are often uttered; if General Practice goes down, then it will take the whole NHS with it.
GPSurvival calls for an urgent – and meaningful – rescue package for General Practice.