The British Medical Association (BMA) should stop “sabre-rattling” and work with the Government on the future of general practice, the Health Secretary has said.
Wes Streeting said there was still the “unnecessary threat of collective action” from the BMA’s GP committee that “would harm patients”.
It comes as leading scientist Professor Sir John Bell said doctors in the BMA have “been a major drag on reform of healthcare”, as a report on the health service is published.
Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I do not find resistance in the NHS, people are crying out for change, and I have some good conversations with the BMA, actually, on reform.”
He added: “I contrast that with some of the sabre-rattling we’ve seen from the BMA’s GP committee.
“Despite the fact we put £100 million into GP unemployment in the first six weeks of this Government and our determination to grow primary care in general practice as a proportion of NHS budget, we still see sabre-rattling, the unnecessary threat of collective action which, let’s be clear, would harm patients and put more burden on their colleagues in other parts of the NHS.
“I don’t think that’s where GPs are, actually. I think GPs want to work with this Government.
“They can see the seriousness of our intent, and GPs really care about their patients. They want, as we do, to rebuild the family doctor relationship.
“I urge the BMA to work with us on that, and stop the sabre-rattling.”
Sir John, who served as regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford for more than two decades, said the “stranglehold” the medical profession had over the healthcare system had to be broken.
The physician, who was appointed a Companion of Honour in the King’s Birthday Honours list in 2023, told the BBC’s The Today Podcast: “There is a problem that the incumbents, who are the doctors in the BMA, have been a major drag on reform of healthcare.
“If you’re thinking about eggs you’re going to have to break – I’m afraid that the stranglehold that the medical profession is broadly to have on the way we run a healthcare system is going to have to be sorted.”
Earlier this year, the University of Oxford announced Sir John was stepping down from his role as regius professor of medicine to take up a new position as president of the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford.
The university said Sir John had played “a major role in the development and rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine”.
Sir John said: “I think that the medical profession is locked into a way of life and a way of practising medicine, but they are deeply conservative, and they’re very hard to move to a different place.
“So, just wait until you start trying to replace pathologists with AI reading of slides.
“Moving innovation into the system requires not just push, it needs pull – and the guys who have to pull it are the docs.”
The BMA has been approached for comment.
