British National Health Service General Practitioners Strike for the First Time in 60 Years... "Limit of 25 Patients per Day"

General Practitioners (GPs) of the UK's public healthcare National Health Service (NHS) are set to take collective action for the first time in 60 years, demanding improved working conditions from the government.

On the 2nd (local time), according to The Guardian and others, the British Medical Association (BMA) announced that in a vote involving 8,518 GPs from the England region held the previous day, 98.3% supported participating in one or more of the collective action measures proposed by the association.

The association has 12,590 GPs as members, of whom 67.7% participated in the vote.

Among the collective actions proposed by the association, a representative measure is limiting face-to-face consultations to a maximum of 25 patients per day. This is about 33% fewer than the normal level.

Other proposals include directly referring patients to specialists without going through formal NHS procedures, refusing to share patient data when it is not in the patient's best interest, and not performing tasks not specified in the contract.

Each GP can choose any of these collective action methods proposed by the association as they wish.

The disruption to medical services will vary depending on the participation rate of GP clinics, but it is expected to become a headache for the Labour government, which came to power pledging to reduce the chronic NHS appointment waiting times.

Matthew Taylor, CEO of the NHS Confederation, told The Guardian, "In some areas, GP appointments may take longer, which will put pressure on hospital emergency services (A&E) and mental health services."

In the UK public healthcare system, GPs are not directly employed by the NHS; instead, GP clinics operate as individual businesses contracting with the NHS to receive financial support.

The previous Conservative government decided to increase financial support by 1.9% this year, but GPs have opposed this, arguing that the increase is too low given years of budget shortages caused by the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring inflation.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting wrote in a Telegraph column before the BMA vote, "I understand that GPs want to punish the previous Conservative government, but such actions only punish patients," adding, "The government wants to reset relations with GPs."

The Labour government recently announced a 6% increase in financial support for GP clinics following recommendations from an independent advisory committee, but the BMA considers this insufficient.

The last time GPs took collective action was in 1964, when they collectively submitted undated resignation letters to the government. In 2012, some GPs engaged in industrial action opposing the raising of the retirement age and other issues.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.