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The government won’t be able to fulfil its commitment to increase the number of GPs by 6000 by 2025, a data analysis by the healthcare think tank the Nuffield Trust indicates. Ahead of the 2019 general election the Conservatives promised to deliver 6000 more GPs by 2024-25, as part of a pledge to provide 50 million more appointments in general practices every year.1 However, the Nuffield Trust found …

The BMA’s England GP committee (GPC) is seeking approval to ballot GPs on industrial action that could constitute a breach of contract. The move comes after the committee formally rejected the health secretary’s rescue package for general practice. Sajid Javid’s plan pledged an extra £250m (€296m; $345m) to increase the proportion of appointments that practices deliver face-to-face, which will require local commissioners to identify the 20% of practices in their area with the lowest levels of such appointments.1 At a meeting on 21 October, however, GPC members passed a motion that rejected the plan. This comes after the majority (93%) of 3500 GPs in …

Two women who lost their fathers to covid-19 are legally challenging what they describe as the government’s failure to protect care home residents during the pandemic. Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris claim that the health secretary, NHS England, and Public Health England unlawfully failed to protect care home residents from the three principal routes of covid transmission.1 These were infection by other residents, infection by external visitors to care homes, and infection by care home staff. Their case will be heard …

It can be difficult to turn down requests to cover rota gaps. However, you must balance your own needs against those of the service, Abi Rimmer hears

The acting chair of the General Medical Council told an audience at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow that action to improve doctors’ wellbeing was needed now more than ever

Becton Dickinson (BD), which manufactures most of the blood tubes used by the NHS, has alerted NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) to a global shortage of some of its products. This includes two types of blood tubes: those with a yellow or purple top. BD says that the covid-19 pandemic created the most unpredictable demand it has seen in the past 70 years. The company says that it has also been difficult for customers to predict the types and quantities of blood tubes they will be using from month to month, which affects manufacturers’ abilities to meet demand. “Adding to the issue are global transportation delays that have resulted in more products being tied up in transportation than is normal, creating additional delays in deliveries,” BD said in a statement. “Raw material suppliers are also challenged to keep up with demand for materials and components.” In the UK, BD has been authorised to import blood tubes that are approved for use in other regions of the world, including the United States. It plans to deliver nine million of these additional blood tubes to the NHS for immediate distribution. Ahead of this, the tubes were assessed and approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products …

Doctors have raised concerns about the effects that a shortage of blood tubes in England will have on patient care and the NHS, which already faces backlogs. On 10 August NHS England issued guidance for healthcare workers, including medical directors and GPs, in the light of global shortages of blood tube products.1 It recommended that vitamin D testing, except …

Taking a break between foundation and specialty training offers opportunities to gain experience and work in different areas, Abi Rimmer hears

Frequently changing roles and workplaces can make it hard to stay in touch with colleagues. Abi Rimmer hears some tips on how to stay connected

Consultants in England will be surveyed on whether they wish to consider any form of action over the award of a 3% pay rise, the BMA has said. On 21 July the Department of Health and Social Care announced that NHS staff, including consultants, in England will receive a 3% pay rise backdated to April 2021.1 The BMA criticised the “below-inflation” rise, saying that it didn’t go far enough …

The BMA has said that it is disappointed by the government’s announced 3% pay uplift for some doctors in England. On 21 July the health department announced that NHS staff including nurses, paramedics, consultants, and dentists in England will receive a 3% pay rise backdated to April 2021.1 The rise does not apply to specialty and associate specialist (SAS) doctors on the new SAS contract or trainees as these groups are in respective multi-year pay and contract reform deals. Nor does it apply to GPs partners, who are subject to a …

The Competition and Markets Authority has fined drug companies over £260m (€305m; $360m) for inflating the price of hydrocortisone tablets by more than 10 000%. The rising costs meant that the amount the NHS paid for a single pack of 10 mg hydrocortisone tablets rose from 70 p in April 2008 to £88 by March 2016, the CMA said.1 For the 20 mg version the price rose from £1.07 to £102.74 a pack over the same period. Before April 2008 the NHS was spending around £500 000 a year on hydrocortisone tablets, the CMA said. This had risen to …

No, I’m not talking about red and white flags. I’m talking about the George Cross, a civilian medal for acts of great heroism and bravery in extreme danger. It is the UK’s highest award for non-military courage. On 5 July it was announced that the queen has awarded the George Cross to “all …

The BMA will back the legal case of a junior doctor, Chris Day, as part of plans to improve its support for whistleblowers. Day has previously claimed that the BMA initially offered support for his case but then withdrew it.1 He fought a four year legal battle to have his claims of unfair dismissal heard after raising concerns in 2014 about understaffing and safety at the intensive care unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, London, where he was a specialist registrar in emergency medicine.2 He claimed that after he repeated the concerns to Health Education England (HEE) it deleted his training …

The BMA has spoken out against plans to allow people to make their own decisions on whether to wear a face covering as part of easing covid-19 restrictions in England. Speaking on 5 July, Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out plans for the final stage of easing covid-19 restrictions in England. The fourth stage was previously delayed by four weeks, from 21 June to 19 July, to allow more people to be vaccinated.1 Johnson said that the plans—which are subject to a final decision by the government on 12 July—would shift from legal restrictions to allowing people to make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus. “From step four we will remove all legal limits on the numbers meeting indoors and outdoors, we will allow all business to reopen including nightclubs, and we will lift the limit on named visitors to care homes …

The government is consulting on plans to align the upper age exemption for NHS prescription charges with the state pension age in England. Currently, people receive free prescriptions when they turn 60 in England, whereas the state pension age is 66. The consultation, published on 1 July,1 said that owing to the default retirement age being abolished, “many people in the age range 60 to 65 are and can remain in employment and be economically active and more able to meet the cost of their …

Over half (52%) of GP practice staff have received threats of physical abuse while working on the covid-19 vaccination programme, a survey has found. The poll of 222 GP practice staff by the Medical Protection Society (MPS) also found that over half (53%) of staff said that their surgery or vaccination centre had been defaced by anti-vaccination material. The survey included GPs, nurses, …

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) will review the medical curriculum to make sure physicians better understand the effects of air pollution on health. The announcement comes after the coroner who made the first UK ruling giving toxic air as a cause of death called on the government and doctors’ training bodies to take urgent action to cut the risk of deaths …

Junior doctors have called on the BMA to lobby the UK governments for a 15% pay rise. Delegates attending the association’s junior doctors conference online on 8 May also voted to censure the BMA for failing to withdraw from the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB). At the BMA’s annual representative meeting (ARM) in September 2020, delegates passed a motion that called on the association to withdraw from the DDRB before the end of 2020. However, at a subsequent meeting in November, the BMA Council voted to defer the motion because a number of representatives said that not submitting evidence to the DDRB “would result in them not being best able to lobby on pay increases for doctors.”1 …

The government believes that employers, rather than the General Medical Council (GMC), should hold registers of doctors’ financial interests, The BMJ has discovered. A confidential document from the Department of Health and Social Care, seen by The BMJ , sets out government proposals for a register of financial and non-pecuniary interests for all doctors. Last year the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, chaired by Julia Cumberlege, called for the GMC to expand …

The BMA has spoken out against proposals that could lead to criminal sanctions for doctors in Northern Ireland who fail to be open and honest with patients when things go wrong. The same would apply to doctors who witness a colleague making a mistake and do not report it. Tom Black, chair of the BMA’s Northern Ireland Council, warned that the proposal would create a hostile working environment, especially for junior doctors. In England, doctors must comply with the General Medical Council’s (GMC) duty of candour guidance.1 This states that they must be open and honest with patients …

The covid-19 pandemic has left some hospital consultants suffering from moral injuries after they were forced to act against their moral compass, the chair of the BMA’s Consultants Committee has warned. Speaking at the BMA’s annual consultants conference held online on 19 May, Rob Harwood said that consultants had faced the pandemic head on, working long hours, sometimes without correct …

If you feel like you’re not getting the training opportunities that you need, there are things you can do, Abi Rimmer hears

Essentially, it’s actively sniffing the same four scents every day for several months.1 The idea is that it can help you to recover your sense of smell if you’ve lost it for two weeks or more. As you know, loss of smell, or olfactory dysfunction, is a common symptom of covid-19. Research has found that 60% of patients experience loss of smell within the …

Benefit Cosmetics has reversed a policy to ban NHS workers who had treated covid-19 patients from using its services, after a backlash on social media. On 14 April the consultant cardiologist Lynn Miller shared on Twitter images of a comment on Facebook from nurse Rachel Kate and a response from Benefit Cosmetics.1 Miller’s tweet said, “I hope none of my NHS colleagues were hoping to go to a Benefit brow bar now restrictions have eased, because they’re refusing to take clients who work for the NHS in case they’ve been working with patients with covid. There is such a thing as PPE [personal …

Most doctors think that the NHS will take at least 18 months to recover from the pandemic, a survey of members of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has found. The college sent a survey to 25 500 of its members in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and received 1142 responses, a 4.5% response rate. Of the doctors who completed the survey, 59% (533) said that getting the NHS back to a stable condition would take at least 18 months. Almost a third of these …

Any introduction of covid status certification or “vaccine passports” must have zero impact on GPs’ workload, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has said. In evidence submitted to the UK government about a possible covid status certification scheme, the college expressed concerns that involving GPs would intensify the workload pressures already facing the profession.1 The government called for evidence on covid status certification as part of its review into whether such a scheme might be used to reopen businesses and reduce social restrictions. Covid status certification would use testing and vaccination data to confirm that people have “a lower chance of transmitting covid-19 to others.”2 It would be available to vaccinated and unvaccinated people who have been tested. The government said it believed that in some settings—such as essential public services, public …

When covid-19 first hit the UK, trainees working in clinical academia took the initiative to return to clinical practice and support the NHS’s response to the virus, Abi Rimmer reports.

Doctors must be allowed to rest and recuperate from the exhaustion of working throughout the pandemic so that the NHS can provide safe patient care in the future, the BMA has said. In its latest report, the association called for the UK government to have an honest conversation with the public about the need for a realistic approach to restoring non-covid-19 care.1 It also called for the health, safety, and mental wellbeing of staff to remain a …

Nothing has happened to NHS pensions specifically. But like all pensions they will be affected by an announcement, made by the UK chancellor Rishi Sunak in the budget on 3 March,1 that the lifetime allowance will remain at its current level of £1 073 100 until April 2026. The lifetime allowance is a limit on the amount of pension benefit that can be taken without triggering an extra tax charge. All pension benefits, except the state pension and certain exempt smaller pensions, count towards the lifetime allowance.2 In the simplest terms it means that, over time, high earners are now more likely to exceed the limit and pay tax on their pension. The rate of tax payable on any excess over and above the lifetime allowance depends on how your pension benefits are paid. For members of the NHS pension scheme this money will normally be paid as part of your annual pension “income.” This means that you will be taxed at a rate of 25% on anything over the £1 073 100 limit. NHS Pensions will deduct this tax charge from your pension before it’s paid to you. So, as Rachael Hall, principal partner at Sandringham …

Female doctors have taken on extra—often unpaid—work during the pandemic, to the detriment of their own wellbeing and mental health, BMA research has found. The association has been regularly surveying doctors across the UK since April last year in order to understand their experiences of the covid-19 pandemic. As part of its latest survey, conducted in February, doctors were asked whether, in the past month, they had undertaken additional hours’ work over and above their contractual requirements, as part of the response to covid-19. Of the 4182 female doctors who responded to the question, 27% said they had undertaken additional hours’ unpaid work, while 9% said they had done additional paid work for which …