In this bulletin-
- A new legal duty, from 26 October 2024, – GP practices and PCNs must prevent Sexual Harassment of employees in the workplace.Physician
- Associates – RCGP recommendations – BMA- phasing out the role of PAs
- BMA GP opinion survey 2024- have your say.
- Patients First why general practice is broken and how we can fix it.
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–Sexual Harassment new legal duty on GPs and PCNs.
From 26 October 2024, employers have a legal duty to implement measures to actively prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
By amendment to the Equality Act ,the Worker Protection Act (2024) introduces a new legal duty upon employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers (the ‘preventative duty’). Previously there was no proactive legal obligation on employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment at work.
If an employer fails to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, the Equality and Human Right Commission can take enforcement steps.
EHRC will have new powers which include investigating an employer for any failure to comply. Other powers include issuing notices to employers confirming a breach and requiring employers to undertake an action plan and/or entering a formal, legally binding agreement to prevent future unlawful acts.
Additionally, a successful Tribunal claim against an employer for failure to prevent sexual harassment will be subject to a compensation uplift of up to 25%.
The new legal duty requires a strengthening of the zero tolerance approach taken towards harassment by GP s ,and PCNs which will now need to distinguish and enhance within their arrangements for dealing with harassment, the steps they take to prevent sexual harassment at work.
The Preventative duty in practice should include: –
- Developing and widely communicating a “robust” anti-harassment policy, including tackling third-party sexual harassment.
- Undertaking regular risk assessments to identify where sexual harassment may occur and identifying steps to address risks.
- Looking out for warning signs in the workplace and being “proactively aware”, through surveys and exit interviews; and
- Monitoring and evaluating how effective these steps are.
A specimen policy and procedure are attached which GPs an PCNs may wish to adopt or plunder, as they enhance their current arrangements.
We should expected that the CQC will wish to see evidence of policy and practical steps to meet the new duty and the GMC , which has already updated its Good Medical Practice on zero tolerance of harassment (Jan 2024), will doubtless expect GPs to comply with the new legal rules.
Sexual Harassment policy and procedure jc 1
–Physician Associates – RCGP recommendations on clinical deployment: BMA in favour of phasing out the role of PA altogether
Adding to guidance and recommendations already published by the BMA, the RCGP has published ( October ) its own recommendations on how Physician Associates should be deployed and supervised in general Practice to reduce clinical risks and avoid Physician Associates being placed in circumstances beyond their clinical expertise.
A copy of the RCGP’s guidance and recommendations can be accessed here RCGP guidance
Following its current consultation exercise the GMC will publish its own regulatory guidance for Physician Associates in November . The BMA is backing a legal challenge to the GMC over its failure to distinguish between GPs and Physicians Associates in its regulatory framework.
Further to the publication of the GPC England on the role of physician associates, the GPs Committee UK (GPC UK) has now met and discussed the role and safety of physician associates in general practice. The committee overwhelmingly voted in favour of the motion below:
This meeting believes that the role of physician associates in general practice is fundamentally unsafe and:
- there should be no new appointments of physician associates in general practice
- the role of physician associate’s in general practice should be phased out
- the role of a physician associate is inadequately trained to manage undifferentiated patients, and there should be an immediate moratorium on such sessions.
The BMA believes that those in existing physician associate roles should be given opportunities to retrain into more suitable NHS roles, including the appropriate undergraduate and postgraduate training in medicine. The priority needs to be the recruitment and retention of more GPs into the workforce.
–BMA GP opinion survey 2024
The latest BMA GP Opinion Survey has opened, and the GPC need to hear from all GPs across the country.
This annual survey gathers GPs’ views on current issues and opportunities facing General Practice, helping to influence and inform this year’s contract negotiations in addition to the longer-term strategy of promoting and protecting the future of General Practice.
The survey is open to all GPs in England, including partners, salaried GPs, locums, and GP registrars at ST3 and above. It is open to GPs working in all settings and practices, wider primary care roles, trusts, urgent care, and secure or out-of-hours settings.
Participants do not need to be a member of the BMA to participate but it will need your GMC number to ensure that responses are coming from eligible GPs based in England. All responses will be anonymised.
The survey will close on Monday, 11 November at 9am.
Please complete the survey as soon as possible and ensure GPC England’s negotiating position is made as strong as possible.
Take the survey here: https://www.research.net/r/FP9JLQJ
GPC vision for general practice
The GPC has published its vision for general practice Patients First: why general practice is broken and how we can fix it, presenting solutions for the new Government to work with the profession iin rebuilding a transformed general practice for the benefit of patients and communities, and improving the long-term health of the nation.
GPs need an extra 11p per day, that’s £40 per patient per year in 2025/26 to provide the patient care that is needed. This investment will help support safer, better continuity of care for our patients, recruiting more GPs and delivering more appointments.
The document has been shared with the Secretary of State for Health, the Department for Health and NHS England. It contains a suggested head of terms for the negotiation of a new GP Contract. The GPC hopes that it can secure the policies that will help fix the front door to the NHS and bring back the family doctor.
Safeguard general practice, and you safeguard the NHS.
Please share the document with patients, and colleagues, while continuing to take collective action that will protect patients and practices.
This bulletin and its contents has alredy been also be posted on the Sefton LMC GP Contract what’ App group, and PMs WhatsApp group. To join these forums to get faster updates and breaking news on the collective action campaign – contact us on Seftonlmc@seftonlmc.co.uk
Already posted on the whatsapp groups is the following document from the
