Kings Medical Practice News www.kingmedicalpractice.co.uk

Thursday is the British Medical Associations 'day of action' where the BMA, the doctors union, has called upon doctors to take industrial action in support of a disagreement with the government about doctors pensions. The BMA is asking doctors in hospitals and general practices to just undertake emergency work and not do any routine work. In general practice this would mean no routine appointments, not issuing routine repeat prescription requests and not giving out any results. They have suggested that general practices should be open for emergency consultations, visits and requests but do nothing else. The disagreement about pensions is that the government has changed doctors pension arrangements so that we will have to work longer and make larger contributions for a small pension.But a typical NHS doctor who retires at 60 will still receive a pension of more than £48,000 a year for life, plus a tax-free lump sum of around £143,300. New NHS figures also show that 104 d

The short answer is no! With headlines in the national press suggesting that GPs are going on strike because a £53,000 a year pension deal is not enough ( click here to read the full story in The Independent) going on strike and any other industrial action is going to be a PR disaster and the BMA is just shooting itself in the foot. GPs are well paid, we have secure jobs, we have good pensions and there is a recession - stupid! The governments proposals for pension changes mean that GPs will pay more, for less good pensions and will have to work longer. However GPs are very angry at the unfairness of what the government is doing for two  reasons. Firstly pensions were renegotiated in 2008 to ensure that they were sustainable; pension age was raised by five years, contributions were significantly raised form 6% to 8.5% and the tax payers contributions were capped against future increases. Secondly, the NHS pension scheme is very sustainable - as a direct result of the 2008 change