Some 60% of GPs reported a decrease in the rates offered for GPs work in the last 12 months, a new survey by the BMA has found.
“ARRS pay in particular is drastically lower than I earned as a newly qualified GP nine years ago,” warned Dr Mark Steggles, a GP in Norfolk and chair of the BMA’s sessional GP committee.
He reported that a further 40% of GPs who saw rates fall said they have seen ‘significant’ falls in GP rates of pay.
In a recent NASGP poll, a third of respondents say they plan to leave the NHS within the next five years.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “Sessional GPs across the board are feeling gaslighted by an horrendous lack of planning and foresight by the NHS, to the point where colleagues are leaving the UK to work abroad, or for free to collect enough experience to remain revalidated. One GP told me at a meeting this week that she felt she was being constructively dismissed by her country!
“Mark and his team are working tirelessly to bring this important message to anyone who’ll listen, and have created a quick but powerful tool to help you get your local MP on board too.
“Ironically, many of us sessional GPs have more spare time on our hands at the moment, so firing off this BMA letter to you MP, and encouraging some local practices to sign up to LocumDeck and use it to book you and your colleagues, can all make a real difference.”