The doctors’ union has been accused of threatening to halt the Covid jab rollout over Government threats to name high-earning GPs.
A leaked survey of doctors by the British Medical Association (BMA) suggests surgeries could refuse to administer Covid vaccinations as part of action to oppose naming those who earn more than £150,000, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
As the UK races to accelerate its booster program, there is a chance that surgeries could stop Covid jabs. This is according to Boris Johnson (Health Secretary Sajid Javid), which is crucial to avoid more lockdowns.
Campaigners accused the BMA of putting the nation’s health at risk with ‘extreme’ threats. The BMA last night said it was in the process of analysing the results of the survey and ‘deciding on next steps’.
Ministers had aimed this month to start publishing the names of GPs earning more than £150,000 a year to bring their pay transparency in line with the Civil Service, but this has been delayed after union pressure.
British Medical Association (BMA), in a leaked survey, suggests that some surgeries may refuse to give Covid vaccines.
A Government source compared the BMA’s actions to the miners’ unions in the 1980s.
The source claimed that the doctors’ union publicly said it was concerned with public health, but was privately focused on pay, workloads and staffing.
The row comes as Whitehall officials are discussing plans to bring in ‘exclusion zones’ for anti-vaxxers, which would ban them from protesting outside schools.
According to government sources, the Department of Health has discussed ways of replicating exclusion zones that were used in abortion clinics around the world by certain countries. But another source said: ‘The police already have the necessary powers to do it,’ referring to Public Spaces Protection Orders.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there were approximately one in 65 Covid cases across England during Week 13 of November 13. It was slightly lower than the previous figure of 925,400
Peter Kyle, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Schools, backed exclusion zones and said: ‘Anti-vaxxers who hang around school gates have no place in public health debate. They’re anti-science and pose a danger to young people.
‘Labour has been saying for over a month that school principals, local authorities and police should have the power to act quickly to protect schools and use that power assertively.’ But Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi is understood to oppose the plans. According to him, there’s no reason for it due to the low incidence of incidents.
The Mail asked doctors in a BMA survey if they are willing to sign undated resignation letters or to cease remote consultations entirely if it was necessary to expand face-to-face visits.
Remote consultations would be a major problem for the NHS, as 40% of all GP visits are done via phone.
Last night, Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices campaign group for the over-60s, accused the BMA of making an ‘extreme’ threat by suggesting GPs could refuse to take part in Covid vaccinations.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid say speeding up the Coronavirus Booster jab programme is key to avoiding more lockdowns
He said: ‘If they were to pull out at the very time we need the booster campaign speeded up, that would be putting the nation’s health at risk.’
He described the idea that GPs only provide face-to-face appointments as ‘a rather childish response’ by the union and said the actions were ‘part of a stand-off between the BMA and the Government’.
But Dr Laurence Gerlis, a private GP who is opposed to the BMA’s militant stance, said it might be best for patients if GPs did quit the vaccine programme. ‘They can always get others to do vaccinations, like nurses and pharmacists,’ he said. ‘GPs should be doing their day job – seeing patients.’
The BMA launched its survey after rejecting a £250million GP ‘winter rescue package’ within days of it being put forward by Mr Javid in October. The funding would have allowed for more staff, including physiotherapists and locum doctors. But it came with the clear expectation that practices would increase face-to-face appointments, and the threat – as some GPs saw it – to publish league tables based on that.
Nadhim Zhawi, education secretary (pictured), is believed to be against the plans
A BMA spokesman said the survey ‘was an indicative ballot that asked what actions practices might be willing to take in response to the lack of support from Government and NHS England for general practice in the face of unprecedented pressures that are risking the quality and safety-of-care that GPs are able to offer to patients.
‘The GP committee has discussed the results and we are now analysing them in detail before deciding on the next steps.’