NEWS: Leaders urge overhaul of GP staff pay

As reported by GP Online, amid reports of denied pay rises, nursing leaders advocate for revamped funding models, emphasising fair compensation for general practice staff

More than three-quarters of practice nurses said they had not received the full 6% pay increase for 2023/24 recommended by the government, a Royal College of Nursing (RCN) survey of nearly 1,500 nurses working in GP practices found.

The poll found 44% said they had received no pay rise at all and just one in five said they had received the 6% uplift in full – although 19% of these had yet to receive back pay to the start of the financial year.

The RCN said nurses were feeling ‘undervalued and undermined’ after more than a decade of pay restraint – and urged the government to come up with ringfenced funding to cover the 6% uplift in full.

The BMA said GPs and practice nurses had been let down by a ‘lack of government financial support’. The comments come just months after the BMA and the RCN published a rare joint statement warning that practices had not been given the financial support necessary to deliver the 6% uplift to staff pay.

The RCN is calling for a complete overhaul of how nurses working in general practice are funded, to ensure they benefit from the same terms and conditions as nurses working elsewhere in the NHS.

The college wants a ‘change to the funding model through which pay rises to general practice staff are made’, warning that funding staff as a proportion of practices’ core funding meant it was ‘down to the practice – as the employer – to determine whether it can afford to pass this on to staff as a pay rise’.

A statement from the college said: ‘Some practices have paid the full 6%, whereas others have paid less than that, and some not at all. We want the government to step in and ensure every practice has enough funds to deliver the pay rise to all its staff.’

ARRS roles

Practice nurses have been added into the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) for the coming financial year – and the RCN warned that this could lead to further inequality between nurses in general practice, with those employed via the ARRS employed under NHS terms and conditions that could differ from practice-employed nurses they work alongside.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of BMA’s GP committee England, said: ‘Nurses are the backbone of general practice and hugely valued by GPs and their patients. But just like GPs, nurses have been let down and undermined by a lack of government financial support for their roles and this new data paints a worrying picture about how the government is addressing the current situation.

‘General practitioners and nursing staff want to serve the needs of their patients both more effectively and efficiently, but practices simply do not have the funds to help bring about change, and that comes down to a lack of government financial support.

‘Ultimately, if the government wants to get serious about improving patient care, they need to get serious about investing properly in general practice, and that starts with valuing staff for the work they do.’

Pay restraint

RCN England director Patricia Marquis said: ‘Relations between nursing staff and the government have never been so strained. Nursing pay needs a fresh start – staff report feeling undervalued and undermined after over a decade of pay restraint, and late pay awards.

‘The government should be valuing the role nursing staff in primary care play, instead of leaving them short-changed. They keep communities healthy, detecting disease early, reducing hospital admissions, and preventing more patients from ending up at A&E.

‘If the government was serious about addressing waiting lists, it would immediately provide ring-fenced money to fund the full 6% pay increase it promised general practice nursing staff.’

Responding to concerns last year about funding for the 6% uplift, a DHSC spokesperson said: ‘We are hugely grateful to GP nursing staff and their teams for the work they do. Working closely with the BMA, we accepted the DDRB recommendation in full to give salaried general practice staff a 6% pay rise backdated to April. The GP contract has now been uplifted and we expect practices to pass this uplift onto salaried staff, including nurses.’