Petition for GP funding backed by British Medical Association

Dr Stephen Katona has called for changes to the current scheme

A petition by a GP calling for surgeries to be given greater freedom in who they employ has been backed by the main doctors' union.

The government currently provides grants to practices to employ new roles but they cannot use the money to hire GPs or practice nurses.

Dr Stephen Katona wants the scheme to be expanded to include GPs.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the government was "committed to improving access to GPs".

The BBC has also approached NHS England for comment.

Under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), which was rolled out in 2019, the government provides grants to GP practices to employ 17 new roles including physiotherapists and pharmacists.

Dr Katona, who has been a GP since 2005 and is based in Didsbury, Manchester, said this funding should also be used to employ experienced practice nurses and GPs to "help provide the best possible care for their patients".

'Best possible care'

He believed by excluding these professions from the funding, it was contributing to the GP shortage.

"Unfortunately a lot of GP practices don't have enough money to pay for GPs and nurses directly so they are relying on this pot of money to fund staff," he told BBC North West Tonight.

"All we're asking is to add GPs and practice nurses to that list."

He has now launched a petition, which has so far attracted almost 9,000 signatures.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's (BMA) GP committee, said he was supportive of the funding scheme but he wanted to see GPs and practice nurses included.

Dr David Wrigley said the petition was backed by the main doctors' union

"We're working our socks off trying to deal with patient care with over 1m appointments per day and we need these extra GPs," he said.

"It's quite amazing that we've got GPs at the moment who are unemployed so the government do really need to take heed of this."

Dr Daniel Hedwat is GP partner at Levenshulme Medical Practice where two pharmacists and a paramedic are employed under the ARRS scheme.

He said he was a fan of the scheme but agreed it should be extended to GPs and practice nurses.

"It just helps patients get a different perspective on their health problems sometimes and they might have a specific problem that a traditional GP or nurse might not be best suited to help with," he said.

"I think the scheme just needs to be more flexible.

"There are certain times when a practice might need more GP appointments and in those situations having money set aside to employ GP locums to offer those appointments might be helpful."

Dr Daniel Hedwat said more flexibility was needed in terms of the funding

It comes as the former First Secretary of State Dominic Raab said he would raise concerns over recent GP redundancies in his constituency in Surrey.

Glenlyn Medical Centre, which has sites in Thames Ditton and Molesey, wrote to all salaried doctors before Christmas inviting them to apply for voluntary redundancy.

Three have since taken voluntary redundancy, with the practice manager saying "new ways of working" had led to changes in the staffing structure.

The DHSC said: "The government is committed to improving access to GPs and we are now delivering 50 million more GP appointments per year with more than 2,600 additional doctors and 34,000 additional staff compared to 2019.

"The ARRS provides funding for 26,000 roles designed to assist doctors in reducing their workload, assist patients directly with their needs and allow doctors to focus on more complex patients and other priorities."

You can watch more on this story on BBC North West Tonight at 18:30 GMT on Tuesday 23 January.