The GP committee of the BMA (GPC) has voted overwhelmingly to pause all meetings with NHS England until the situation with face-to-face appointments is resolved. The emergency motion said the GPC has ‘no confidence’ in NHS England’s executive directors.
The vote at the committee’s online meeting was triggered by a letter, sent by NHS England on 13 May, that told practices that they must provide face-to-face appointments for patients who request one, unless “there are good clinical reasons not to”, and also to open their receptions to walk-ins within three days, with patients being triaged at reception.
The letter was incorporated almost completely into the Standard Operating Procedure on 20 May. NHS England claimed that the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) had backed its letter.
Now GPs are calling for the resignation of NHS England’s medical director for Primary Care, Dr Nikki Kanani. A petition launched by grassroots organisation GP Survival – which represents 8,600 GP members in the UK calling for Dr Kanini to ‘resign or be removed from her post’ had gained over 1200 signatures by 20 May.
In an open letter, GP Survival said its committee has ‘no confidence’ in Dr Kanani’s leadership following the ‘inflammatory and insulting’ guidance sent to practices.
BMA GP Committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey said: ‘For the representatives of England’s GPs to pass a vote of no confidence in NHS England’s senior leaders, is a clear wake-up call to NHS England and also for the Government.”
He added that the letter was “woefully badly-judged” and “the final straw for many hard-working GPs who have gone above and beyond over the last year”.
What is fueling GPs’ anger is that they are open and they have been seeing patients face-to-face where appropriate throughout the pandemic and many surgeries have increased face-to-face appointments of their own accord at a pace that is sensible.
A survey by Pulse of more than 800 GPs conducted in the week before the letter found half were already doing home visits (54%) and non-urgent screenings (51%) as ‘normal’, with 35% saying the same for in-person enhanced services.
The NHS England letter came hot on the heels of a campaign by the Mail on Sunday claiming that GP practices are closed and calling for them to be open again to patients. This has fueled considerable hostile coverage of GPs in certain sections of the media.
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