BMA condemns proposed GP contract changes as ‘not feasible’

The British Medical Association (BMA) has expressed strong concerns about government plans to make widespread changes to the English GP contract from April 2013.

Proposals being put forth by the coalition would see general practice facing new targets and additional workload responsibilities across several clinical areas, while changes to resource allocation involve higher targets for GPs to reach in order to retain funding through the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

However, the BMA has carried out a survey of almost 8,000 doctors showing that 58 percent believe they will need to make changes to their practices to compensate for these reforms, while 54 percent believe the move will reduce access to patients.

GPs expressed their fear that they will need to dedicate more time to box-ticking administrative work, while highlighting unfeasible proposals that would require patients being referred to education programmes that do not exist everywhere in England.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA's GP committee, said: "The government needs to address the serious concerns expressed by GPs. If they fail to make changes to their proposals they run the risk of damaging patient care."

The organisation also called on the government to do more to address issues that are currently seeing junior doctors being forced to work unreasonable hours.