Assurances from Scotland’s health secretary that proposals for a National Care Service are not set in stone have failed to convince GPs who this afternoon voted overwhelmingly to reject any move that would take them out of the NHS.

As first reported by healthandcare.scot, GPs are unhappy at a proposal that would see their contracts move from being with NHS health boards to new National Care Service (NCS) bodies.

Addressing the BMA’s Scottish Local Medical Committee Conference, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf told his audience of GPs the consultation on reforming social care, which closed last month, was about provoking discussion – and said no change would be "imposed" on them:

“Let me just say to you very, very clearly, that neither me nor Kevin Stewart, the minister who is leading much of the work on the NCS, have got a notepad on what the NCS should look like.

“It’s not a fait accompli, we’ve not decided here’s what it looks like. We genuinely wanted an open consultation.”

Mr Yousaf said the government is genuinely looking at the consultation responses with ‘a very open mind’, adding:

“So be in no doubt at all that you will be fully involved in the discussions around an NCS. Nothing is a fait accompli. Nothing is decided.”

Despite his assurances earlier in the day, the conference went on to support a motion describing the proposal as an attempt to end collective-bargaining and break general practice off from the rest of the medical profession - though they acknowledged the wider plans could improve social care.

Speaking on behalf of the Fife local medical committee, Dr Glyn McCrickard suggested the government’s plans were a sinister, underhand and unacceptable attempt to divide and rule:

“It’s not just division of general practice. We fought tooth and nail to forge better working relations with our hospital colleagues and services...This proposal will effectively relocate our professional identity completely out with the NHS.

“How will our hospital colleagues relate to us then? What of our GP colleagues elsewhere in the UK who might look to work here in Scotland? We already face an immense recruitment and sustainability challenge. Our contract has failed to deliver the support it has promised. And we still need to find a way through the challenges of Covid pandemic.

“How can this clause have anything but a negative impact on the morale and the resilience of our profession today? Or is that the point?”

The Chair of the BMA’s Scottish GP Committee, Dr Andrew Buist complained that, “despite asking many times”, the profession has not been given an explanation of why the government included the proposal for GP contracts to be moved across to the national care service.

“I’d be extremely disappointed if the Scottish government proceeded following the consultation.

“This could damage general practice beyond repair, particularly with regard to workforce retention, and our opposition would be considerable,” he said.

 

Read more: Government denies move to take GPs out of NHS; Fresh concern at proposal to take GPs out of NHS;  GPs "can’t sustain this indefinitely"

 

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