Please sign this petition to allow GP surgeries to use employ practice nurses, salaried and locum GPs with ARRS funding.

[StephenKatona]

Currently GP surgeries can use £1.4 billion for 2023/24 to fund up to 17 roles to help patients... as long as they are not practice nurses or GPs. Yes, you did just read that. The fund being used to finance roles to help with a shortage of GPs and practices nurses cannot be used to reduce that shortage.

Many surgeries are having to rely on ARRS funding to employ staff. I, and many other GPs believe practice nurses, salaried GPs and locum GPs should be added to this list of 17 roles. Please sign this petition if you agree:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652965

are you a GP?

Yes, GMC 4089384.

Apologies, I'm unable to delete the word 'use' from the title.

Isn't the purpose of ARRS to fund additional roles in order to free up capacity for existing GPs and practice nurses? The petition doesn't explain why that isn't working. Is it because:

• there aren't enough people with the skills covered by ARRS
• the type of demand in the practice is for GP and practice nurses skillsets only
• the need is too acute and there isn't time to recruit into the ARRS roles?

(Given ARRS has been running for years it shouldn't be the last of these?)

Hi tribpot, I know of many GPs who are struggling to find work and tell me there are less jobs being advertised. GP partners have to pay themselves from the money that is left which means GP partners who employ salaried GPs are often taking a pay cut compared to partners that employ staff using ARRS money. If there really is a shortage of practice nurses and GPs there should be no problem allowing ARRS money to employ them. By all means set a limit on how much a salaried GP might be paid, although it would be reasonable for a GP with 10 years experience to be paid at a rate higher than say band 8a for a physician associate for instance. You could argue there ought to be a band 9 for this purpose.

for me to sign anything
i would need an objective source to back up your assertion re knowing “many GPs” struggling to find work

Well I for one, am a GP who can’t find work currently despite 11 years of experience as a GP and 23 years altogether as a Doctor.
I know of a few hundred others personally in a similar predicament, from being in a discussion group. Practices can’t afford to employ GP’s as funding isn’t provided.

Signed.

Having highly trained doctors at the primary care front line IS the NHS. If it works, when it works, that's why.

Is this the pot of money that is allowing GPs to recruit physician's associates? These are people with a two year training course who are then let loose on undifferentiated diagnosis?
Many qualified doctors cannot find work because their jobs are being taken by these PAs simply because there is a pot of money for them.
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1737933459413471398

Hugely risky strategy.
https://twitter.com/Dr_Done_/status/1737239683879641092

i see a GP strike on the horizon.

Hi Pifful, yes, it is the same pot money that has been ring fenced for 17 roles, including physician associates, that excludes GPs and practice nurses. The petition is merely to give GP practices the power to choose what staff they spend the money on. Opening up ARRS to market forces is only fair - let GP surgeries decide who they think are best qualified to look after their patients.

Is this why my GP practice suddenly has a pharmacist on staff who has all the time in the world to call me up and talk to me about the repeat prescriptions I've been taking for years, but no GP appointments?

Yes, there are benefits to ARRS funding but why exclude practices nurses and doctors?

Personally I would rather see patients for free than strike but that's a personal choice.

This article effectively calls for the same action the petition supports.
https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/views/editors-blog/schrodingers-recruitment-crisis/

Erm… perhaps my tone there wasn't clear to you.

Although I understand the potential benefits to the practice and some patients, I don't personally feel that long, luxurious chats with a pharmacist about established medication regimes are something I'd like to prioritise over being able to access essential primary care with a GP or nurse, especially since I can talk to a community pharmacist any time I want if I really feel the need to.

The pharmacist also insisted on shifting me over to a shitty powder salbutamol inhaler for a while, which is designed so it's incredibly hard to draw air through even though you're taking it because you're struggling to breathe, meaning you can't get the drug through to your lungs properly and also exacerbating the psychological panicky can't-breathe feedback loop aspect of an asthma attack — and which also has to be chucked away a few months after opening, even though I only need to use it about once every month or two. Very eco.

Essentially, I'm on your side here.

You’re right about the work drying up - I’m sure there’s some regional variation but I’m salaried and had previously done Locum / OOH shifts around the kids but there’s nothing advertised and our OOH are filling the shifts with non-doctors. At work I’m increasingly expected to supervise / debrief a variety of other clinicians which would be fine if I understood their training and had enough time allocated but it’s just another layer of risk and time I don’t have.
I’ve signed though agree with PP it doesn’t address all the reasons. I also don’t trust the governments agenda with primary care at all - I think a lot of what is making things so horrific at the moment is entirely intentional.
I don’t know what the solution is but a lot of my peers (first 5 GPs) are starting to explore other options. I’m actively looking for other jobs which is upsetting but I think best in the long run.

I work in a GP surgery in the NorthEast, we have advertised for 2 salaried GP's now for nearly a year and have had one applicant. There is work out there and not enough GP'd

Sorry, this was the article where he says:
'There is a really easy way out of this, of course: allow practices and primary care networks to use ARRS money to employ locums. This will improve patient safety, which has to be the priority for the NHS and the Government. And putting the trust in GPs to spend this funding on the right roles is a much better approach than the current ‘NHS knows best’ attitude that would have made a 1960s GP blush.'
https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/views/editors-blog/has-the-recruitment-crisis-come-full-circle/

Thank you, it's good to know there are still areas where work is available for GPs.

Would you like to have the right to use ARRS funding to pay for practice nurses, salaried and locum GPs? Having the right doesn't mean you have to exert that right of course.

Please have hope, one of the main aims of the petition is to help reduce the number of GPs leaving the profession. This is the first ever 10 Downing St petition to mention ARRS funding and after 24hours already has more signatures than any other petition mentioning 'GP'. 10,000 signatures would be nice. 100,000 would encourage parliament to consider discussing it - more than that would be hard for them to ignore...

have you looked at this site Op

theres hundreds of salaried NHS GPs being recruited for

and that is just one site

https://jobs.rcgp.org.uk/jobs/salaried-gp/

Nothing in Liverpool
287 all around UK / wales Scotland is not a lot of job x

on ONE recruitment site

check out indeed!

I work in an AHP role in general practice, and trust me, round here, there are no GPs or practice nurses desperate for work. It's impossible to recruit GPs, either salaried or as partners.