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To All Our Patients at Courtside
You may have seen in the news that GPs across the country have recently voted in favour of taking collective action to try and ensure that general practice in England has a future.
The origins of this dispute lie with the previous government but the action we are taking has had to be developed over several years.
GPs are independent contractors to the NHS so strike action is not possible. The action we are going to take is to work strictly within the terms of our contract. This is what is commonly referred to as a work to rule.
Most of the actions we are going to take will have no negative impact upon our patients. Our actions will cause difficulty with NHS data collection, prescription rationing and for hospital management systems.
The principal action we are going to take at Courtside Surgery is to stop rationing referrals, investigations and hospital admissions. We will no longer accept the pressure that has been applied on us to ration medical assistance and we will refer our patients when there is agreement between the patient and the GP that that is an appropriate thing to do. If hospitals reject those referrals, then the patients should contact PALS. For your local PALS office, please click the link below or call 111.
If the patient wishes to escalate their complaint further, please contact your local MP. For Yate and Thornbury are this would be Claire Young, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.
Email: Claire.young.mp@parliament.uk
We are hopeful that the new government will resolve this dispute quite soon but if they do not there are further measures that we will be taking which may have a more direct impact upon the number of patients that we can consult each day.
Further details regarding the collective action can be found on the BMA website.
Thank you.
Dr Brian Tomlinson
On behalf of the Partnership
Published: Sep 4, 2024