According to a recent survey, more than three-quarters of GPs do not believe that the profession should give up its independent contractor status and become salaried by the NHS.

The survey was carried out last week and involved 523 GPs, of whom 74 per cent were partners, 13 per cent were salaried GPs, 9 per cent were locums, 2 per cent GP registrars and 2 per cent either private or other GPs.

Comments posted following the survey included one from a GP partner who expressed concern that GPs would just become a service industry with a service mentality if GPs became salaried.

However, another GP partner said that general practice has changed, so they would support the proposal to abandon independent status, particularly if GPs are to become pawns in a political game.

Outgoing Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), Professor Clare Gerada, who originally floated the idea, said that she was glad that ideas over the alternatives to the independent contractor status of GPs were being explored.

Professor Gerada pointed out that the survey shows that there could be no single top-down solution and that GPs should get together to sort out the problem.

She also added that the pay model she was talking about was GPs becoming salaried to a GP-led organisation rather than a foundation trust, which was another idea that had been mooted.

However, incoming RCGP Chair, Dr Maureen Baker, has rejected the suggestion that GPs should give up their independent contractor status, saying that it meant that the profession could remain ‘flexible and adaptable’.

Dr Baker added that her priority will be to make the business case to Government and policy makers to get more funding and more workforce for GPs.