GP Collective Action
On Thursday 1st August 2024, GPs across England began to take collective action following a ballot of GP partners by the BMA.
This means that many GP practices are ‘working-to-rule’, only undertaking tasks that are included in their NHS contract.
In turn this could mean fewer GP appointments being offered and therefore resulting in more patients accessing community pharmacy for services and advice.
Please let me our Chief Officer know what actions local GP practices are taking and how that is affecting your ability to provide services to your patients, so we can share this intelligence with local NHS partners including the ICB and work with us to monitor the situation across the country.
You can either email me or complete the webform using the below link.
Report an issue to our Operations Team – Community Pharmacy Leicestershire and Rutland
Please report any of the below issues using the webform:
- Unfunded work that you have had to undertake as a direct result of the GPs collective action.
- Need to go into business continuity measures that results in walk in patients being signposted elsewhere
- Any influxes of referrals near to the close of business that means patients have to wait until the next day to be receive Pharmacy First.
- Referrals outside of the normal types of work pharmacy are expected to deliver
If your pharmacy is affected by local action by GPs, you should communicate this to your patients, making sure it is clear why the pharmacy team is under even more pressure than normal.
Please find links to below to posters that you can print.
The first poster is to be used where a pharmacy is experiencing high demand, but has not yet had to prioritise their service delivery:
GP action – experiencing high demand – template poster (PDF)
GP action – experiencing high demand – template poster (Word)
The second poster can be used when a pharmacy has had to prioritise the services it is able to provide:
GP action – services being prioritised – template poster (PDF)
GP action – services being prioritised – template poster (Word)
If due to local GP collective action, patient demand for services and advice outstrips your capacity to provide it, you may also need to activate part of your *business continuity plan*.
Further information can be found here