England’s GPs are squaring up to the government – but it’s an unnecessary battle | Polly Toynbee

The tragedy for patients if industrial action seriously disrupts treatment is that doctors and ministers pretty much agree

GPs in England have embarked on industrial action for the first time in 60 years. The 10 actions they can choose from could bring the NHS to a grinding halt. Their ballot result, announced last week, blew the lid off a boiling pot as 98.3% voted for collective action against the impossibly inadequate budget increase of 1.9% awarded to practices by the previous government. This is a warning about a service on the point of collapse, they say. The lack of GPs is so alarming that the health secretary, Wes Streeting, last week announced plans to recruit more than 1,000 GPs this year as a “first step” emergency measure, after arriving in office and saying bluntly that “the NHS is broken”.

Some of the media slammed the GPs. The Mail found one earning £700,000 – who probably ran many clinics – but average GP pay in 2021/22 was £118,100. Why they have become the whipping boys of the right is hard to fathom when, by any measurement, they are among the most hard-pressed and the most productive staff in the NHS, with an increase of 6.4 million patients registered with a GP in England since 2015.

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