This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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GPs vote 'yes' to new contract
20/06/2003
In a ballot which ended today, GPs voted yes to the new
General Medical Services contract.
The new contract, negotiated by the NHS Confederation
and General Practitioners Committee (GPC), was approved by
the four UK Health Ministers and published in February. In
the UK-wide General Practitioners ballot, GPs voted in
favour of the new GMS contract with a 79.4 per cent yes
vote.
Commenting on the yes vote, Health Minister Malcolm
Chisholm said:
"The GP Ballot result announced today is most welcome.
It is a good result for patients, doctors and the NHS in
Scotland.
"This practice-based contract rightly recognises the
important role the primary care team has in delivering
patient care. The new arrangements enable GPs to manage
their workload more effectively and will improve the
working lives of family doctors across Scotland.
"This modernising contract will lead to an increased
focus on quality and the primary care team rather than the
individual GP, reducing bureaucracy and increasing
flexibility so that the contract better serves local needs
throughout Scotland. This will be accompanied by an
unprecedented increase in investment in primary care of 33
per cent over the next three years.
"Now that the deal has been accepted by the profession,
the Scottish Executive will be working with the General
Practitioners Committee and NHSScotland to ensure the
effective implementation of the proposals."
The new contract will bring a number of benefits to GPs
including greater control over their workloads; better
rewards in return for high quality services, and improved
working conditions through investment in practice
infrastructure for premises modernisation and IT. The new
contract also enables other primary care staff to fully use
their skills and experience to provide a wider range of
services to patients.
For patients, the contract means improvement to services
by offering more choice, increased quality of care, new
ways of accessing services and the provision of services in
the local community transferred from hospitals.
For NHSScotland, the new arrangements will enable the
service to shape primary care to fit local needs more
effectively. The new arrangements should also assist in the
recruitment and retention of doctors and other primary care
workers.
The contract will be supported by a major increase in
investment in general medical services in primary care - 33
per cent increased investment over 3 years. In 2002-03
total investment in general medical services in Scotland is
£433m. By 2005-06 this will rise to £575m.
The target date for full implementation of the contract
is 1 April 2004. To enable this, changes are required to
primary and secondary legislation. The Primary Medical
Services (Scotland) Bill is due to be introduced to the
Scottish Parliament before the summer recess.
The ballot opened on 2 June and concluded on 20 June
2003. The contract for ballot was published on 23 February
2003.
The turn out of the ballot was 70 per cent.