As we await publication of the 10 Year Health Plan, last month saw the release of the NHSE draft model ICB blueprint. This document outlines NHSE’s vision around the future functions of ICBs, their role in supporting the neighbourhood health service and the three shifts: treatment to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital.
Although still draft, the proposals provide both challenges and opportunities for General Practice, cross cutting multiple organisational layers. In response, GPCE has produced guidance summarising the proposed changes and risks, and sets out the impact of these for General Practice. It highlights and discusses key issues that practices and LMCs will need to consider as part of their short to longer term planning.
This is intended as a basis to develop discussions and strategic thinking amongst GPs and LMCs ahead of the publication of the 10 Year Health Plan. General Practice faces a critical choice. Step up and lead the transformation: forming collaboratives, taking on contracts, building the infrastructure –or risk being sidelined with hospitals or community trusts becoming the default neighbourhood health provider.
If we cannot engage, our future, and that of General Practice as a profession may be defined by others.
If you have any thoughts on the issues raised, please contact info.gpc@bma.org.uk
Carr-Hill formula reforms
The Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced yesterday that the 10 Year Health Plan will have a focus on health inequalities, through a review of the Carr-Hill formula funding for GP practices.
In response to this, the GP Committee England chair Dr Katie Bramall said:
“It is crucial that those who need care the most get it, but not at the risk of creating more disparities by simply moving around resources to plug the existing shortfalls in care. This is why need a minimum investment standard for general practice within the upcoming Ten-Year Plan. The funding and timeline of such reforms is crucial as rushing this could lead to more practice closures and have unintended consequences on patient access and continuity of care. Any change must account for differences in patient demographics, including deprivation, without practices losing out.
The BMA has long called for reform of the Carr-Hill funding formula and will work alongside the Government to ensure that any future changes provide fair and full remuneration that recognises GP workload and current pressures on the profession. We also to see focus on change that protects and builds neighbourhoods, with a focus on recruiting and retaining new doctors using incentive schemes, prioritising under-doctored areas.”
ARM 2025
This week the BMA ARM (annual representative meeting) took place. Hosted in Liverpool and online, over 550 colleagues gathered to debate the issues affecting our profession, and set BMA policy for the future. Read the GPs committee's report to ARM >
National Insurance hike fuelling crisis in general practice
Following years of underinvestment and rising patient demand, delegates voted for the BMA to lobby the Government for an immediate exemption from the rise in employers’ NI contributions, and for reimbursement. Read more
Updated FAQs – online consultation contract requirements
Following further discussions with suppliers, NHSE and the profession, GPC England has updated its FAQs on online consultations ahead of the implementation of contractual requirements in October. We expect to update these FAQs again in August to reflect ongoing discussions.
GP Premises Survey 2025
We’re calling on all practice managers and premises-owning partners across England to take part in our GP Premises Survey 2025, to help us gather essential data on the condition of GP buildings. This evidence will directly shape our proposals and negotiations with Government – supporting our case for the urgent investment and backing your practice needs.
If you're unsure about some details, simply select 'don't know' where needed – every response, even partial ones, contributes to building a clearer national picture.
Help us advocate for better premises and stronger support for general practice - take the survey
MP FOI request template
Further to a member receiving an FOI request from an MP to their practice we have put together a template response, which may be of use to those receiving these types of requests.
Please see attached the template which leaves space for you to reply to the individual FOI request as usual, but then provides background to the pressures GPs are currently facing, and calls on the MP to support GPs.
UEMO General Assembly
The BMA delegation attended the spring general assembly of the European Union of General Practitioners (UEMO) on 6 and 7 June. During the meeting Dr Peter Holden, who is Vice-President of UEMO, and the BMA Head of Delegation, led an important discussion on recognising general practice as a speciality on a European wide level. As a result, delegates agreed in principle a shared statement with UEMO to go to both the European Parliament and European Commission calling for this change to be made. This statement will be ratified at the next general assembly in the autumn.
Visa challenges for International Medical Graduates (IMGs)
The BMA’s GP Registrars Committee and the RCGP Registrar reps are conducting a survey to raise awareness of the lack of employment opportunities for GPs getting their CCTs, and to push for better visa options and earlier access to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), with the Government. Please share with all practice trainees.
Please complete the survey by 18 July 2025 (responses are confidential and anonymised).
Blended learning survey for GP registrars and trainers
If you are a GP registrar or GP trainer in England and have direct experience of blended learning as part of GP training, we’d like to hear your views. The short survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.
GP wellbeing resources
A range of wellbeing and support services are available to doctors, and we encourage anybody who is feeling under strain to seek support, such as the BMA’s counselling and peer support services, NHS practitioner health service and non-medical support services such as Samaritans. The organisation Doctors in Distress also provides mental health support for health workers in the UK. We have produced a poster with 10 top tips to help support the wellbeing of you and your colleagues.
The Cameron Fund supports GPs and their families in times of financial need, whether through ill-health, disability, bereavement, relationship breakdown or loss of employment. The RCGP also has information on GP wellbeing support.
Please visit the BMA’s wellbeing support services page or call 0330 123 1245 for wellbeing support.
Read the GPCE bulletin: ICB draft blueprint response | ARM 2025 | call for new professional regulator
Comprehensive Spending Review 2025
The Chancellor published the second phase of the Spending Review this week, setting budgets for government departments for the next three years. The DHSC budget is set to rise on average by 2.8% a year in real terms between 25/26 and 28/29. While significantly higher than many other departments, this falls below both historical average growth trends and the BMA demand to increase budgets by 4.3% a year to deliver sustained improvements and provide an appropriate uplift for GP contracts.
The Spending Review commits to additional funding by 2028/29 to “bring back the family doctor” which will reportedly build on the GPs recruited in recent months and aims to train thousands more GPs and increase the number of GP appointments. This raises more questions than answers – GPs lack jobs to go to, and resources to fund them. Please highlight the Registrar surveys below to your practice ST3/4s to gather essential quantitative data to continue to push the case for funding practice-based reimbursed additional GP roles to end GP unemployment. GPs without jobs, equals patients without care.
Likewise, if additional GP numbers are secured, we desperately need the necessary infrastructure to offer increased appointments. The BMA is modelling the SR figures and will closely monitor how much new funding really is available.
We met with the minister this week, and will be writing to Mr Streeting seeking explicit reassurances and details for the profession and commitment to a new contract in the Ten Year Plan. NHS England’s draft model blueprint for ICBs demonstrates the risks if Government caves into pressure from existing NHS trust leaders: it is guaranteed to deliver only financial deficit and broken promises threatening practice autonomy and continuity of care.
You can be assured that your GPC England team continues to relentlessly influence behind the scenes, as the weeks ahead will make or break it both our future, and the Government’s with it.
Read more here, including our briefing. Read the our statement in response
GP Premises Survey 2025 – Now Open!
We are pleased to launch the GP Premises Survey 2025. We’re calling on all practice managers and partners across England to take part.
Watch this short video with GPCE Premises Policy Lead Gaurav Gupta speaking on the importance of supporting this survey:
“Your insights are vital. By completing the survey, you’ll help us gather essential data on the condition of GP buildings. This evidence will directly shape our strategy and negotiations with Government – supporting our case for getting the urgent investment and support your practices need.
Even if you're unsure about some details, please don’t hesitate to complete the survey. Simply select 'don't know' where needed – every response, even partial ones, contributes to building a clearer national picture.”
Help us advocate for better premises and stronger support for general practice. Make your voice count – take the survey today.
Urgent and Emergency Care Plan
The Urgent and Emergency care plan 2025/26 has now been published, delayed from its initial due date back in January. It identifies 8 targets across UEC to drive improvement by the end of this year and requires all systems to develop and test new winter plans by the end of this summer which include a ‘significant increase’ to care outside of hospital settings.
Whilst this plan is focused on achieving targets to improve urgent and emergency care services, it offers no new funding, no increases in system capacity, no strategy to expand nor retain the workforce, and little detail on reforms in social care to achieve this. The plan fits with three big shifts: treatment to prevention; hospital to community; analogue to digital - expected to be the backdrop for the 10 Year Plan, due for release in the next few weeks. In response to this, Dr Katie Bramall, GPCE Chair said:
“There is a huge missed opportunity where this announcement mentions patients’ challenges in accessing GP services, but offers no proposals and zero funding to increase GP capacity at all. With practices in England providing 50 million patient contacts each and every month, we cannot work any harder, the Government must create greater capacity to better meet patients’ needs. This requires investment to drastically expand GP surgeries to house more GPs providing more appointments.”
Read full statement: Urgent and Emergency Care Plan will likely leave doctors underwhelmed
Focus on Tirzepatide for weight management in General Practice
From 23 June 2025, Tirzepatide must be implemented in primary care. Tirzepatide represents a new therapy for weight management, but requires structured implementation, appropriate monitoring, and clarity around responsibilities. GPs should only engage in prescribing where clinically appropriate and safely resourced to do so.
GPCE has produced Focus on Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for weight management in General Practice, which explains how it is used, commissioning arrangements (responsibility for funding lies with ICBs), and responding to information requests from private providers. It includes a template letter for practices to respond to requests for medical information following a private consultation. Read the guidance
Foresight AI model
Following the disclosure that GP data collected for COVID-19 research had been used to train an AI model in NHS England’s secure data environment, GPCE reached out to NHSE and the British Heart Foundation team leading the research for clarity. We called for NHSE to refer itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and pause processing data.
We can now confirm that processing has been paused and the ICO has been contacted. Although the situation does not currently require any action from GPs, we will keep members updated.
Ambient Scribe use in General Practice
Following a letter from NHSE urging caution on the use of ambient scribe software in general practice, GPCE has drafted a short statement endorsing this approach and reiterating steps practices should take where they have these platforms in place or have plans to implement them. As practices are ultimately responsible for any consequences of arising from the use of these new platforms, it is critical that they are confident of having carried out proper clinical safety and information governance assurance.
Historic GP2GP duplication
GPCE have been engaged with NHSE on an ongoing basis to discuss the support for practices impacted by the historic duplication of records transferred via GP2GP. Following an intervention by GPCE, NHSE agreed to remove the burden from practices and any practices required to take urgent action will be contacted by Optum to seek permission to share correct records with the patient’s current practice. Further action will be taken in future and GPCE will communicate what, if any action, practices need to take as and when required.
Visa challenges for International Medical Graduates (IMGs)
The GP Registrars Committee is working with RCGP Registrar reps to raise awareness of the lack of employment opportunities for GPs getting their CCTs, and to likewise push for better visa options and earlier access to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). We're raising these concerns directly with the Government but we need your help to get real-world data. We're running a short survey on how these issues affect GP registrars and GPs. This evidence is vital to support our case to the Home Office and others. All responses are confidential and anonymised. Please share with all practice trainees.
Please complete the survey by 5pm Friday 18 July 2025.
Blended learning survey for GP registrars and trainers
If you are a GP registrar or GP trainer in England and have direct experience of blended learning as part of GP training, we’d like to hear your views. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.
Adjustment to primary care network payments
Since April 2025, some PCNs have seen an unexpected change in the value of the DES payments based on their adjusted population, beyond uplifts applied in the 2025/26 GP Contract Agreement. NHSE has told us that, due to a change in data source, an incorrect number of new patient registrations was included in the calculations, particularly impacting on practices that have merged, as new patient registrations under voluntary mergers were originally included and should not have been.
NHSE has also highlighted that new patient registrations in September were erroneously excluded. This will have had little impact on most PCNs but will impact on those that include student practices as these see a large number of new patient registrations in September. It is likely their weighted capitation has been underestimated.
NHSE has identified an alternative data source and recalculated the adjusted populations for each PCN. PCSE will use the amended PCN adjusted populations for monthly payments to PCNs from June onwards. All PCNs will see some movement in their payments for core PCN funding, the enhanced access service, PCN capacity and access support and PCN capacity and access incentives:
Shared care prescribing principles
We have updated our guidance on Shared care prescribing principles, to include a resolution passed at the UK LMC Conference in May. And hope these will assist both practices and LMCs in discussions about the responsibilities that should fall to General Practice. Read the full guidance
England LMC Conference – 7 November 2025
This year’s England LMC Conference will be on Friday 7 November 2025, at the Royal Northern College of Music, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9RD.
We will be emailing again in early July to share more details about how to register and submit conference motions. If you have any questions, please contact info.lmcconference@bma.org.uk.
UK LMC Conference news
The resolutions from the UK LMC Conference held on 8-9 May have been published. Read more
GP wellbeing resources
A range of wellbeing and support services are available to doctors, and we encourage anybody who is feeling under strain to seek support, such as the BMA’s counselling and peer support services, NHS practitioner health service and non-medical support services such as Samaritans. The organisation Doctors in Distress also provides mental health support for health workers in the UK. We have produced a poster with 10 top tips to help support the wellbeing of you and your colleagues.
The Cameron Fund supports GPs and their families in times of financial need, whether through ill-health, disability, bereavement, relationship breakdown or loss of employment. The RCGP also has information on GP wellbeing support.
Please visit the BMA’s wellbeing support services page or call 0330 123 1245 for wellbeing support.
Read the GPCE bulletin: Spending review | GP premises survey | urgent and emergency care plan
Read the latest Sessional GPs newsletter
DDRB pay award 2025-26
Last week, the DDRB pay award recommendations for 2025-26 were finally announced, with a 4% uplift to the pay element of the GP contract and the pay range for salaried GPs. The Government has accepted the recommendations in full, but 4% won’t be enough to ‘fix the front door’ of the NHS nor expand GP teams and ‘bring back the family doctor’.
Our new report The Value of a GP informs HM Treasury ahead of the comprehensive spending review why only more investment into general practice will secure the recovery of the wider NHS.
I have written to Wes Streeting to seek necessary clarity and to ensure GPs and practices face no financial disadvantage. We need clear funding to ensure the full 4% can be passed onto employed GPs, to meet AfC guidance in ARRS roles, and have also made the case as to why the 4% needs to be applied across all three pay domains to support practice stability.
It is clear there is insufficient investment to allow practices to create additional GP roles. We advised Mr streeting in late July 2024 of GPC England’s view that whilst the GPs in ARRS policy was helpful as a quick fix upon immediate arrival in Government, it won’t deliver on improving continuity of care, nor social equity, nor the evolving problem of emerging GP unemployment.
We wrote regarding this critical issue last week, this week I have again asked Mr Streeting to look at direct practice reimbursement for additional GP roles. Government needs to act now, ahead of August, and ahead of the new cohort of GPs qualifying in this country, many of whom will be preparing for under-employment, and unemployment. We have a moral and ethical duty to them, and the taxpayer, to keep them in our NHS practices, providing care to patients. GPs without jobs = patients without care.
GP wellbeing resources
After the shock and upset of the Bank Holiday events in Liverpool, our thoughts turn to our GP colleagues providing help and support to affected communities. So often we are the first port of call for societal stress, and that can take its toll. Last week also saw the tragic news of the loss of life of Chorley GP, Zak Uddin. Our thoughts are with his family, practice and patients.
Please remember you have the support of your colleagues, LMC and the BMA. A range of wellbeing and support services are available to doctors, and we encourage anybody who is feeling under strain to seek support. Please take a moment to check in on your colleagues’ wellbeing and look out for each other.
Support comes in various forms, from the BMA’s counselling and peer support services, NHS practitioner health service and non-medical support services such as Samaritans. The organisation Doctors in Distress also provides mental health support for health workers in the UK. We have produced a poster with 10 top tips to help support the wellbeing of you and your colleagues.
The Cameron Fund supports GPs and their families in times of financial need, whether through ill-health, disability, bereavement, relationship breakdown or loss of employment. The RCGP also has information on GP wellbeing support.
Please visit the BMA’s wellbeing support services page or call 0330 123 1245 for wellbeing support.
GP unemployment campaign
Last week, the BMA’s Sessional GPs Committee and GP Registrars Committee launched a major campaign to expose the worsening crisis of GP under and unemployment. In a joint letter to the Secretary of State, the committees issued an urgent call for action, warning that up to a thousand GP registrars finishing training this August could be left without jobs, despite patients facing severe delays in care and practising GPs struggling under unsafe, unsustainable workloads. This unacceptable situation is backed by our survey: 15% of GPs couldn’t find any suitable work, 56% are seeking more NHS hours without success, and 21% are planning to leave the profession altogether.
The letter demands immediate Government intervention, including ring fenced, direct to practice core funding separate from the failing ARRS scheme, to employ newly qualified and underemployed GPs in roles that deliver continuity of care. Read more about the GP un/underemployment campaign.
Sign-up window for Advice and Guidance (A&G) extended
The sign-up window for practices to sign up to participate in the A&G Enhanced Service has been extended to 3 June. Practices should sign up via CQRS.
GPCE and NHS England are keen to ensure that the A&G Enhanced Service is implemented correctly, as per the published national specification. If practices experience any issues in the implementation of the A&G service, which deviate from the national spec, please get in touch with details to your LMC and to us directly at info.gpc@bma.org.uk and read the NHS England guidance.
Read our ‘Focus on’ Advice and Guidance Enhanced Service.
New GP drive to find undiagnosed infected blood patients
All new patients registering at GP practices are to be asked if they had a blood transfusion before 1996, as part of an NHS drive to find undiagnosed patients affected by the contaminated blood scandal. Each year, around 400,000 people born before 1996 – around half of new sign-ups online – will now be asked if they received a historic blood transfusion, with those who did then being offered a test for hepatitis C.
Patients will be able to order discreet, self-testing hepatitis C kits to complete at home, involving an easy finger prick blood sample which is then posted to a lab for analysis – or they can also access testing at GP surgeries, sexual health clinics and other services.
Seniority payments update
Seniority payments were historically made to GP partners based on their length of NHS service and income received. The Scheme closed to new members on 1 April 2014 and was then phased out over a six-year period to March 2020. These annually released sums were diverted into the Global Sum.
Seniority payments were based on thirds of average partner income, with no payment being made if a partner drew under a third of average income, 60% between one-third and two-thirds, and those receiving over two thirds average income receiving a full payment. The actual entitlement depended on the publication of each year’s Final Seniority Factor (FSF), which was last published in April 2020.
After many months of discussions, we have now finally received assurances from PCSE that they will not seek to undertake a reconciliation exercise for the financial years 2013/14, 2014/15 or 2015/16. However, a very small number of practices may receive further communications in future about the Tranche 1 years (2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20). Further information is available here.
Removal from Performer’s List: Urgent, 111 and Out of Hours (OOH) GPs
We have been alerted to several areas where GPs exclusively working in OOH, 111 and urgent care have been informed that that they will need to be removed from the Primary Medical Performers’ List. They have been advised to resign from the performers list, or risk a formal removal process.
We have raised concerns centrally with NHSE as this risks unnecessarily removing a cohort of GPs that are delivering primary medical services, which could impact upon their ability to undertake practice work in the future.
If you have been affected by this, we would be keen to hear from you, if you are a BMA member, please contact us via the member services Contact us and our GPC email: info.gpc@bma.org.uk
Foresight AI model trained on GP Data
Following reports in the press that GP Data extracted via GPES under a repurposed COVID-19 extract formed part of a wider set of data that had been used to train an AI model without knowledge or approval of an advisory group set up to oversee it, BMA and RCGP wrote to NHS England via the Joint GP IT Committee. In our letter, we outlined the seriousness of this action and sought immediate clarity on how the data sharing took place. This is an ongoing situation, and we expect to provide further updates in the next newsletter.
Read the latest GPCE bulletin: DDRB pay award | wellbeing resources | GP unemployment campaign
Dr Katie Bramall
GPC England chair
As patient need continues to rise, general practice is buckling under immense pressure. GPs are leaving the profession, or reducing their NHS commitments, at an alarming rate, driven by burnout, unmanageable and often unsafe workloads, and the pull of more attractive careers abroad. And yet, despite this, many fully trained GPs remain unemployed or underemployed while communities struggle to access care. This is a tragedy both for those GPs, and for patients who could benefit were those GPs able to work
In response, at the UK LMC Conference last week, GPC UK launched The Value of a GP report that brings together a robust body of evidence to highlight the irreplaceable role of general practice in the UK. The report demonstrates the far-reaching impact of GPs, not only on the health and experience of individual patients but on the overall efficiency, sustainability, and economic value of the NHS itself.
General practice is at a pivotal moment. Without bold and immediate action to support and retain GPs, we risk the collapse of a service that underpins the entire NHS.
Watch the speech by Dr Katie Bramall at the UK LMC Conference about the report:https://youtu.be/RTePDQbpUhU
Read the report: BMA general practitioners committee UK overview
See also BMA GP X
LMC UK Conference 2025 - 'The GP unemployment paradox'
The LMC UK Conference was held last week at the SEC, Glasgow, Scotland.
The Conference, which had a theme of the ‘GP unemployment paradox’, included a themed debate on the unemployment crisis, and the Chair of the BMA Sessional GPs Committee, Dr Mark Steggles, shared “heartbreaking” stories from GPs who are struggling to find any or enough work in the NHS, as the unemployment crisis in general practice deepens.
In a speech by the co-Chairs of the BMA’s GP Registrars Committee, Dr Victoria McKay and Dr Cheska Ball called for “ring-fenced funding direct to practices to employ newly qualified GPs”.
At the Conference, representatives also gathered outside the Conference venue to call for urgent action to end the GP unemployment crisis https://x.com/BMA_GP/status/1920477955714674922
The Conference resolutions will be available on the BMA website shortly.
The agenda: 'The GP unemployment paradox' and further information is available >
Funding for GP surgery refurbishments
In response to the Government’s announcement of new funding for GP surgery refurbishments, Dr Katie Bramall, chair of GPC England, said:
"All new funding is welcome in the current parlous situation many GPs find themselves in, but the scale of the task facing the Government is far greater than these sums would suggest. To put it in context, £102m would barely pay for a handful of individual new surgeries, let alone do much to restore the more than 1000 it is aimed at.
Many of these surgeries are a constant headache for the GPs who work in them. GPs want to be focused on patient care and delivering a good service - not anxious about the decision to either keep staff or keep their surgery buildings in a fit condition.”
Read the full statement: BMA responds to new funding for GP surgery refurbishments
Read also a feature on GP practices working out of crowded spaces in the Doctor magazine
Patient Registrations for GP practices - PCSE
PCSE (Primary Care Support England) is hosting a webinar on patient registration for GP practices on Thursday 22 May, 1 – 2.30 pm. The webinar follows previous similar events, which have received very positive feedback, and will cover the following topics:
Register for the webinar: Webinar Registration: Patient Registrations for GP practices
There are also useful FAQs on patient registration and deregistration available on the PCSE website:
In addition, please note the following update from PCSE in relation to patients removed from the GP’s list for reasons that warrant an immediate removal, which can only be requested when an incident involving the patient has been reported to the police by your practice. Such patients will be allocated to an SAS (Special Allocation Scheme) provider.
Each geographical area has a SAS provider and patients are allocated to a SAS provider based on the commissioning region of the removing GP. If there are multiple providers in an area, then the patient will typically be registered with the provider that is closest to their home post code. There are some exceptions to this and the local commissioner will instruct PCSE when it is necessary to register the patient with a provider that is a greater distance away (i.e. easier to get to by public transport).
AI in general practice
Following a series of announcements generate a renewed focus on the role of AI in general practice, GPC has developed this brief note ahead of more substantial guidance aimed at supporting practices to meet their regulatory obligations. We will be sharing a more detailed document in time.
Crime and Policing Bill mandatory reporting of underage sexual activity
The Government’s proposals in the Crime and Policing bill would require doctors to automatically report to the police or social services every case of underage sexual activity where one partner is 18 or over (e.g. a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old) or in any circumstances when one partner is under 13. We are aware from our members that it is not exceptional for young people aged 13-15 to be in consensual sexual relationships with people who are older than themselves. Whilst the BMA's position is that safeguarding children must be of paramount importance, it is clear that there will be implications for GPs around consultations with young people under the age of 16 who are engaging in sexual activity.
The BMA Ethics Committee is currently considering this matter, and the GPC England is liaising with them. We have advised the minister and officials about our serious concerns about the impact of these proposals on trust in the doctor-patient relationship and the subsequent risks to young people’s health and wellbeing, and we are working with other organisations including RCGP, Brook and BASHH to seek amendments.
Read the BMA Ethics toolkit on 0-16 years which covers sexual activity, confidentiality and safeguarding.
Childhood Immunisation Programme, changes for 2025/26
NHS England has now confirmed the following, previously heralded, changes to the Childhood Immunisation Programme. From 1 July 2025
From 1 January 2026
Full details of these changes are available in an NHS England/UKHSA update at:
There is also a UKHSA webinar planned for Wednesday 11 June, 2.00 – 3.15 p.m., to discuss these changes further and colleagues can register their interest for this at:
Registration Form UKHSA webinar: childhood immunisation schedule changes (11 June).
Wellbeing resources
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. A reminder that there is always someone you can talk to.
A range of wellbeing and support services are available to doctors, from the BMA’s 24/7 confidential counselling and peer support services, NHS practitioner health service and non-medical support services such as Samaritans. The organisation Doctors in Distress also provides mental health support for health workers in the UK, providing confidential peer support group sessions.
Please visit the BMA’s wellbeing support services page for more information and resources.
Read the latest GPCE bulletin: The value of a GP report | LMC UK conference | GP contract guidance and webinars
Dr Julius Parker
GPC England deputy chair
Email: info.lmcqueries@bma.org.uk (for LMC queries) Email: info.gpc@bma.org.uk (for GPs and pr
Loca collective action: stay safe, stay organised, stay united
GPC England’s national dispute with Government is now over, following the acceptance of the 2025/26 contract agreement. However, the importance of local collective action to resolve ongoing commissioning gaps continues and indeed should be ramped up. The role of your LMC in this and pressurising your ICB to resource what has been unfunded work up to now are vital. Read the latest local collective action guidance on our GP campaign page >
Our safe working guidance continues to be GPC England policy and is regularly updated. Newly planned 2025/26 contractual asks, such as patient access to e-consultations for routine care as well as requesting fit notes or medication queries, do not mean GP practices must offer unlimited capacity that jeopardises patient or staff safety. The safe working guidance includes template letters which help practices manage workload and limit capacity to deliver safe, high-quality care.
We also feel it is important to state that you do not need to turn on ‘GP Connect Update Record’ which the vast majority of you turned off last summer. We have heard some ICBs are telling GPs to turn it on – this is wrong. It is an area we are having ongoing discussions with Government in the coming months, and we will issue more guidance ahead of the proposed ‘switch on’ for 1 October 2025.
I know many of you are asking questions about the new Advice and Guidance Enhanced Service and we will be issuing guidance on this very soon. You can read the NHSE guidance here. If you use A&G then you are eligible to claim the fee from April 1 2025 so it is important to keep a tally of those done and submit claims each month as per the guidance. We will cover more of this in our guidance document.
All colleagues are encouraged to read GPC England’s guidance on the 2025/26 contract changes, where additional related guidance will be added in the coming days and weeks. Thank you for all your hard work day-to-day in your practice and we will continue to push for the investment we need in general practice to once again make it fit for purpose and a place to enjoy working in.
Prescribing/dispensing update
We wish to highlight two prescribing areas we are planning to develop guidance for over the next few weeks/months:
Inclisiran
NHS England has updated its guidance for Inclisiran, specifically:
There is existing joint RCGP/BMA guidance for Inclisiran and we plan to update this, following the above update and the changes to QOF within the 2025/26 GP contract.
Tirzepatide Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for weight management has been approved by NICE for delivery within primary care by 23 June 2025. NHS England has delegated this responsibility to individual ICBs, and GPC England has not been consulted about this. We are clear that prescribing for weight management is not part of GP essential services and this activity must be accompanied with the additional funding. We will share more guidance when funding mechanisms are clearer.
Use of patient data
You may have seen reports in the Guardian this week about preparations being underway to allow the transfer of GP data to organisations like Biobank for research studies. NHS England and the Department of Health are considering repurposing the dataset, designed for pandemic planning and research, to enable the GP data of those patients who have given explicit consent to be passed over to organisations like Biobank. NHS England will assure the consent processes and will assume liability for any flows of data, should a Data Direction and suitable Data Provision Notice be forthcoming. We have been clear that patients who may already be enrolled in these programmes are able to opt out, should they withdraw their consent, without increasing GP workload.
Separately to this, we have been in positive discussions with the Department of Health and NHS England on the forthcoming extension of OpenSAFELY to non-COVID purposes. OpenSAFELY is unique in the sense the most disclosive GP data remains in situ in the system suppliers' systems and the analyses take place there. We will share more news on the progress of OpenSAFELY in due course.
PCN DES CAIP component – “simpler online requests”.
Our guidance on CAIP (Capacity and Access Improvement Payment) has been updated and is available here: Primary care network funding
GP Contract Webinars 2025
All colleagues are invited to hear the GPC England Officer team discuss the detail of the changes in the GP Contract and its funding for 25/26. After the presentation there will be time for Q&As.
Read more about the contract changes, our advice and the webinars: GP contract 2025/26 changes
LMC UK Conference Agenda
The LMC UK conference will be held on 8 and 9 May at the 'Scottish Event Campus', Glasgow.
The agenda: 'The GP unemployment paradox' has now been published, and further information is available >
Rotational training survey
The BMA, as part of the pay offer to English Resident Doctors, has agreed to undertake a review into rotational training with the UK Government. Additionally, the BMA is in discussions regarding reforms of rotational training in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that are separate to this review. Rotational training is the current form of training whereby resident doctors ‘rotate’ between trusts/health boards and, in many cases, employers across their training programme.
In order to ensure the BMA can achieve the best possible reforms to the system, we are asking GPs who are educational/ clinical supervisors to respond to some questions about the role. The survey will ask about the rotational training system from your view as an educational clinical supervisor for rotating doctors, which will inform how we can deliver substantive, useful changes.
The survey will close at 5pm on Tuesday 22 April. Please find the link to the survey here.
BMA’s Patient Liaison Group (PLG) Virtual Symposium
Wednesday 30 April 2025, 9:30 — 13:30
Online via Microsoft Teams
Please register here: https://events.bma.org.uk/plg25/reg
With 5,289 men lost to suicide in England, Scotland and Wales in 2023, this year's PLG symposium will explore the gaps in the health and social care system, how factors such as neurodiversity, deprivation, and intergenerational experiences intersect with mental health, the stigma around masculine identity and seeking help, and what actions could drive meaningful change.
Please contact confunit@bma.org.uk for more information.
Maximise Your Chances of GP Job Success
3 June | Join our comprehensive virtual workshop designed to help you navigate the GP job market with confidence. The interactive event is designed to support ST3 GP registrars, sessional GPs seeking new or additional roles or hours, GPs qualified outside the UK looking for their first NHS roles, GPs returning to practice after a career break, and First5 GPs.
This workshop provides expert guidance on navigating the job market at ST3 level and beyond, including alternative career pathways and finding the role that’s right for you. Discover the support and resources available from the BMA and other organisations to aid your job search. With insights from experienced GPs, opportunities to ask questions, and a dedicated discussion session, you’ll leave with the knowledge needed to maximise your chances of securing your ideal role. Register your interest >
Wellbeing resources
A range of wellbeing and support services are available to doctors, from our 24/7 confidential counselling and peer support services, NHS practitioner health service and non-medical support services such as Samaritans. The organisation Doctors in Distress also provides mental health support for health workers in the UK, providing confidential peer support group sessions.
Please visit the BMA’s wellbeing support services page for more information and resources.
GPC England committee pages and guidance for practices
Read more about the work of the committee and Contact us: info.gpc@bma.org.uk
Read practical guidance for GP practices
See the latest update on X: @BMA_GP / Twitter @TheBMA / Twitter
Read about BMA in the media: BMA media centre | British Medical Association
Are your contact details up to date? Check on the myBMA webpage.
Please contact our membership team if you have any queries: membership@bma.org.uk
Read the last bulletin: Local action guidance | GP contract webinars | National Insurance Contributions Bill
Read the latest GPCE bulletin: https://bma-mail.org.uk/t/cr/AQiEtRUQqK4aGOHMsxfMHCg950g8PIOSzDbhg-dQRrst1NT07m-0TxDWFKZNIQ
Local action: Stay safe, stay organised, stay united
GPC England’s national dispute with Government may be over, following the acceptance of the 2025/26 contract, but the importance of local action to resolve ongoing commissioning gaps continues. Read our latest local action guidance on our GP campaign page
We continue to strongly advocate for safe working and encourage practices to identify unfunded and underfunded work in their areas and to engage in local action to address commissioning gaps. When locally commissioned pathways fail or there are service gaps, practices should initiate re/negotiations, via their elected LMC representatives, with ICBs to secure appropriate resourcing.
Practices who are undertaking under/unfunded work should either be fully resourced, to ensure patient care – for some of the most vulnerable people in society – is sustainable, or, with the support of their LMC, consider serving notice to ICBs. LMCs are integral to facilitating fair and effective local agreements between practices and commissioners – supported by our national advice and resources. This is simply business as usual local action, coordinated by your LMCs, which has been happening for many years.
Our safe working guidance continues to be GPC England policy and is regularly updated. New planned 2025/26 contractual asks, such as patient access to e-consultations for routine care as well as requesting fit notes or medication queries, does not mean GP practices must offer unlimited capacity that jeopardises patient or staff safety. The safe working guidance includes template letters which help practices manage workload and limit capacity to deliver safe, high-quality care.
All colleagues are encourage to read GPC England’s guidance on the 2025/26 contract changes, where further additional related guidance will be added in the coming days and weeks.
GP Contract Webinars 2025
All colleagues are invited to join us to hear the GPC England Officer team discuss the detail of the changes in the GP Contract and its funding for 2025/26. After the presentation there will be time for questions and answers.
Read more about the contract changes, our advice and the webinars: GP contract 2025/26 changes
National Insurance Contributions Bill
The Government has continued to reject Lords amendments to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill which would potentially exempt GPs from ENICs (Employers National Insurance Contributions) increases. They have used the reason that the Lords Amendment ‘interferes with the public revenue’ which is inappropriate as the elected chamber The Commons has final say on tax and financial issues (a position dating from the Parliament Act 1911) and has used its majority to push the Bill through. The Bill will now receive Royal Assent, becoming law on 3 April 2025.
Over half of GPs in England have missing years of pensions data
BMA’s recent Freedom of Information request has revealed that 56% of GPs in England have missing pensions records up to 2022/23, with 156,896 years of pension data missing in total. This matters because without your pension record being up to date you cannot determine potential tax charges and whether you can increase work without penalty, nor make informed decisions about your pension savings. This is also important for those affected by the McCloud remedy. We have highlighted Capita’s failures in the media and calling for an urgent solution to this significant issue.
We continue to meet with Capita, NHS BSA and NHSE to put pressure on them, and although we had verbal commitment that they will write to affected members with specific personalised information in relation to missing years in pension records, no timeline was provided. Whilst we firmly believe this is a problem that Capita, NHS BSA and NHSE need to work together to resolve, you can also take action to make sure your record is up to date and encourage you to do so and we have produced step-by-step guidance to help you.
GP pressures
The latest GP workforce data shows that the NHS had the equivalent of 28,248 fully qualified full-time GPs in February 2025. While fully qualified GP FTE has been slightly rising since July 2023, there are still the equivalent of 1,116 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs than we did in September 2015. At the same time, there has been a rise in the number of patients, with February 2025 seeing yet another record-breaking number, where GPs are now responsible for about 17% more patients than in 2015, creating significant workload pressures.
Despite these pressures, approximately 29 million standard appointments were booked in February 2025, with an average of 1.41 million appointments per working day. Of these, 44% of appointments were booked to take place on the same day, and 83% of were booked to take place within 2 weeks. 64% of appointments in in February were booked to take place face to face.
Read more about GP pressures on our data analysis page: Pressures in general practice data analysis
GPC England regional elections
The General Practitioners Committee England (GPCE) has opened voting for members of the committee for the 2024-2027 sessions from the following regions:
Voting will close at 12pm on Monday 14 April 2025
For more information on these elections, please visit the GPC England website.
The BMA is also running elections for the Sessional GPs Committee – fin out more here.
Freedom of Information requests to LMCs
GPC England was informed that a patient contacted an LMC with a Freedom of Information (FoI) request via a website advising on this. LMCs are advised that the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’) only applies to public authorities listed in Schedule 1 of the Act or otherwise designated by an order of the Secretary of State under section 5. LMCs are not listed in Schedule 1 and have not been otherwise designated as subject to the Act.
While LMCs are referred to in statutory law they are not created by statute, and operate independently of government and the NHS. The NHS Act 2006 provides merely that LMCs may be ‘recognised’ by NHS England, and NHS England may be required to consult with LMCs over its work relating to general practice. Therefore, LMCs are neither public bodies in the sense of being created by government or performing public functions, nor public authorities under the Freedom of Information Act. As such, GPC England has requested that LMCs are removed from their website in relation to making FoI requests, and are also highlighting this position to all LMCs..
The BMA, as part of the pay offer to English Resident Doctors, has agreed to undertake a review into rotational training with the UK Government. Additionally, the BMA is in discussions regarding reforms of rotational training in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that are separate to this review. Rotational training is the current form of training whereby resident doctors ‘rotate’ between trusts/health boards and, in many cases, employers across their training programme.
In order to ensure the BMA can achieve the best possible reforms to the system, we are asking GPs who are educational clinical supervisors to respond to some questions about the role. The survey asks about the rotational training system from your view as an educational clinical supervisor for rotating doctors, which will inform how we can deliver substantive, useful changes. Take the survey here.
GP focus group - primary care provision for refugees and asylum seekers project
As part of a project to improve the provision of primary healthcare to people seeking asylum and refugees, the BMA’s International team will be holding a focus group online on 4 June 2025, 14:30-16:30. Input from the group will help lobby the government to better support doctors in providing high-quality healthcare, and inform updates to the BMA’s Refugee and Asylum Seeker Patient Health Toolkit.
If you would like to attend the focus group or find out more, contact info.international@bma.org.uk.
GPCE bulletin: Local action guidance | GP contract webinars | National Insurance Contributions Bill
Read the latest Sessional GPs newsletter
GPC England receives commitment to full renegotiation of a new GP contract
On the 27th February GPC England (GPCE) voted to accept the 2025/26 contract changes contingent upon written assurance to the profession from the Secretary of State Wes Streeting around a new substantive GP practice contract being negotiated in this parliamentary cycle.
Last week we received the Government’s commitment, in writing:
“to working with the GPC England to secure a new substantive GP contract within this Parliament, without preconditions, based on collaborative work, and in the spirit of mutual trust and good faith, with general practice at the heart of a neighbourhood health service”. Read the letter >
This means that we can now fully accept the 2025-26 contract changes. Online contract webinars and guidance are being developed to help support practices and GPs in better understanding what these changes will mean. We will be sharing more guidance and FAQs about the 2025/26 contract very soon.
GPCE believes that the 2025/26 agreement and written government commitment to the negotiation of a new GP contract, are important first steps of a longer journey of recovery and rebuilding of trust. We hope that this signals the start of a relationship reset, where the Government is listening to GPs’ concerns and acting on them.
GPC England met on 20 March, where we discussed next steps on key aspects of the 2025/26 contract and we look forward to working with the Government on a new substantive contract to provide hope, safety, and stability, for our patients, staff and the future of general practice: enabling the return of the family doctor.
We would like to offer our sincere and deep thanks to everyone who has helped us by their efforts in taking collectiveaction. Without you and your hard work this would have not been possible. Many of the items on the collective action menu are superseded by the 2025/26 contract. We will be focusing on what is needed locally and we strongly recommend practices follow safe working guidance.
We advise practices to continue to engage with their LMCs and negotiate and secure appropriate resourcing to support the delivery of safe patient care, helping to stop patients falling through gaps in local commissioning.
These 2025/26 changes represent an important first step towards the recovery of General Practice services in England and set us on a path towards making NHS general practice once again the jewel in the NHS crown.
Read the press statement and watch Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer’s speech to conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEr6bHnHjMM
Declaration of completion for “simpler online requests” in the 2024/25 PCN DES
As part of collective action, GPC England has previously advised practices and primary care networks (PCNs) to defer signing up to the 2024/25 PCN DES (Directed Enhanced Service) CAIP (Capacity and Access Improvement Payment) voluntary incentive component – “simpler online requests”, which requires PCN member practices to enable patient access for e-consultations with the intention of this being available throughout core hours.
Now that agreement has been reached on the 2025/26 GMS and PCN DES contracts, we would advise PCNs and practices with outstanding claims for this component of the CAIP incentive, if they wish to accept this requirement, to submit their claim ahead of the March 31st 2025 deadline.
As per the DES Specification a PCN “can notify the commissioner at any time prior to 31 March 2025” and following receipt of the CAIP payment form, the commissioner will arrange for payment of the relevant amount for that part of the CAIP, representing the full years’ payment in such a case.
We continue to encourage practices to follow existing GPC England Safe Working Guidance. Further information pertaining to the PCN DES for 2024/25 can be found here.
GP Contract Webinars 2025
Join us to hear the GPC England Officer team update on the new 2025/26 GP contract changes. There will be an opportunity for Q&A. Please see dates and times with registration links below:
Read more about the contract changes and webinars here: GP contract 2025/26 changes
March collective action tracker survey
Thank you to those who have participated in the collective action tracker surveys so far. The March action tracker will be the final one in its present format. We will be updating and modifying the format for future iterations, so please keep an eye out for this. The survey is open and closes at 5pm on Monday 31 March - please encourage all GP partners and practices managers to complete the survey.
Parliamentary activity
National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Bill
The National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Bill, which will enshrine into law the increases to NICs, was debated in the Lords on 25 February. During the report stage of the Bill a Liberal Democrat amendment to exempt the health sector from NICs hikes, which included GP practices, was passed.
However, when the Bill returned to the Commons, they Commons voted to reject the Lords’ amendment, meaning that GP practices and other healthcare providers will continue to face increased employer NICs. The Bill will now go on to complete its final stages.
Meetings
Last week GPCE met with Dr Luke Evans MP, Shadow Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to discuss current issues impacting GPs, the discussion included funding, GP unemployment the NICs Bill, ARRS, workload pressures and general challenges facing GPs and practices.
UK LMC Conference - Registration deadline - 3 April
The registration deadline to attend the UK LMC Conference is 3 April 2025. Instructions on how to register were sent to all LMCs on 6 December 2024. Please note that if you haven't been registered by this deadline you will not be eligible to attend the conference, even if dinner/hotels/trains etc have been booked. It is the LMCs responsibility to ensure that all their reps and observers are registered.
If you are unsure if you have been registered, then please email Karen Day at kday@bma.org.uk.
Any other queries can be sent to info.lmcconference@bma.org.uk
GPC England regional elections
Voting is open for members of GPC England for the 24-27 session from the following regions:
Voting closes at 12pm on 14 April 2025. For more information, please visit the GPCE England website.
Sessional GPs Committee elections
The Sessional GP Committee (SGPC) has opened voting for 16 elected members of the committee. Election counting rules will be applied to ensure that a candidate will be elected from each of the committee’s thirteen regions. The committee’s regions are based on the BMA’s ten English regional councils, in addition to one representative in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Voting will close at 12pm on Monday 14th April 2025. For more information on these elections, please visit the BMA Sessional GP Committee webpage.
Read the latest GPCE bulletin:
Government new GP contract commitment | 2024/25 PCN DES CAIP | GP contract webinars
GP contract for 2025-26 accepted in principle
Last week, the GPC England voted to agree in principle the proposed amendments to the 2025/26 GMS contract for GP practices, contingent upon written assurance to the profession from the Secretary of State Wes Streeting around a new substantive GP practice contract being negotiated in this parliamentary cycle. We have written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care seeking confirmation of the Government’s intention to negotiate a new substantive NHS General Medical Services contract within this parliament. GPC England will work with Government over the coming weeks to provide the necessary assurances and guidance to the profession.
The 2025-26 contract includes new investment of £969m on top of the £433m invested in the autumn of last year, totalling over £1.4bn investment since July 2024.
GPCE continues to recommend practices work safely and advises that where commissioning gaps exist, or where commissioned pathways are failing practices and patients, these need to be negotiated locally. Practices should be appropriately resourced for the work they undertake in providing vital care for patients.
Our national dispute with the Government may be over, but the local focus and disputes at a system level continue, where our decade-long safe working guidance policy still remains, and where patients must be protected from gaps in local commissioning. Practices who are undertaking such work should either be appropriately resourced to ensure sustainable patient care, or consider serving notice on them to ICBs. LMCs are central to this process of achieving a fair collective bargaining position for practices supported by national BMA advice and resources. We will be seeking DHSC support for this new phase, to help change ICB narratives towards general practice, supporting alignment with the Government’s stated objectives towards continuity of care and the shifting of resources from hospital out into the community.
We will be producing new updated guidance accordingly in the coming weeks with FAQs and webinars. The NHS sees 1.7million patients every day – 1.5 million of them in our GP surgeries. If the Government wants to transform the NHS, it must work with us to deliver a new practice contract with new funding agreed by the Treasury.
Read more about the changes: www.bma.org.uk/GPcontract
Watch my video recorded last week after GPC England met, explaining the contract deal.
Special England LMC Conference
A Special England LMC Conference will be held on Wednesday 19 March 2025, at Friends House, London. This was requested in November by the Conference of England LMCs to further assess the critical state of general practice in light of any potential government contractual offer, and what options may be open to the profession to maximise leverage.
The focus will be to discuss and determine what escalatory steps will be needed to ensure the survival of what still remains of English general practice.
If you have any questions, please email info.lmcconference@bma.org.uk.
2024/25 declaration of completion for “simpler online requests”
GPC England has previously advised practices and primary care networks (PCNs) to defer signing up to 2024/25 PCN DES CAIP “simpler online requests” which may request the enable patient access to e-consultations every working day from 8am to 6.30pm (as part of the PCN voluntary contract incentives).
Whilst GPC England recognises the aspiration in relation to the on-line consultation platform and its role as one part of patients’ opportunity to contact practices, we do not agree this element of the CAIP proposal was properly communicated during the 24/25 Contract consultation and remain very concerned about the potential implications of this issue for practices.
However, now that agreement has been reached for the 2025/26 contract we would advise practices with outstanding claims for this part of the CAIP to submit their claims well in advance of Friday 28 March 2025, but citing the caveats of the above information from the BMA and GPC England. We will be publishing further guidance shortly.
Parliamentary update
The BMA has continued to brief parliamentarians as the National Insurance Contributions (NIC) Bill has been making its way through parliament. During the report stage of the Bill in the House of Lords the Government was defeated on a number of key points including a Liberal Democrat amendment to exempt the health sector from NICs increases. This means that as the Bill currently stands, health sector organisations including practices will be exempt from the employer’s NICs hikes under the legislation. However, as the Bill is due to return shortly to the House of Commons it is likely that the Government will seek to overturn these changes. The BMA will continue to lobby on the Bill and keep members updated.
BMA member relations regional map
The BMA has published a map showing the BMA’s Member Relations regional structure, identifying each Head of Region, the area they cover and their contact details. This has been created to support LMCs in building relationships with their relevant Local Negotiating Committees (LNCs). If practices or LMCs would like any contact details relating to the Trusts in your area, please email the relevant Head of Region and they will be able to assist you. The map can also be accessed on the BMA LMC page
GP pressures: latest workforce data
GP practices across the country are experiencing significant and growing strain with declining GP numbers, rising demand, struggles in recruiting and retaining staff, with knock-on effects for patients.
The latest workforce data shows that there is still the equivalent of 1,129 fewer fully qualified full-time GPs than in September 2015. During this time, there has been a rise in the number of patients, with January 2025 seeing yet another record-breaking number. GPs are now responsible for about 17% more patients than in 2015, demonstrating significant workload pressures. Learn more about the pressures on general practice by visiting our website
GP unemployment crisis
The BMA’s UK sessional GPs committee has surveyed salaried and locum members to help highlight the absurd situation of the growing unemployment/underemployment crisis among GPs. The survey showed that 1 in 5 GPs in England plan to change their career because they can’t find work. At a time when patients are struggling to access appointments, it is unacceptable that so many skilled GPs are unable to find work. The BMA is also asking all GPs to write to their MP and urge them to support changes that will allow more GPs to work in the NHS. Write to your MP now by using our tool.
Read more about the survey and the ‘write to your MP tool’
Guidance on salaried GP maternity leave changes for employers and employees
We recently announced a change in maternity leave for salaried GPs which extends the number of weeks for which half maternity pay can be received from 14 to 18 weeks, aligning this with the period of time parental reimbursement can be claimed under the Statement of Financial Entitlements [SFE] for GP locum cover during this period of absence. It also aligns the total period of maternity absence [8 weeks full pay, and now 18 weeks half pay] with that available to equivalent hospital-based doctors.
More information can be found on the BMA website.
GPC England regional elections – nominations now open
GPs Committee England is now seeking nominations for voting members of the committee for the 2024-2027 sessions, as regional representatives for the following constituencies:
You can nominate yourself here. Nominations close on 21 March 2025 at 12pm.
If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact elections@bma.org.uk.
For more information about BMA elections please go to https://www.bma.org.uk/elections.
NHS England
It has been announced that Amanda Pritchard will stand down as Chief Executive of NHS England at the end of this financial year. Sir James Mackey will take over as Transition CEO of NHS England, for the next month before taking up post formally on the first of April. In addition to this Dr Penny Dash was confirmed as the new Chair of NHS England, taking over from Richard Meddings, who will also step down in April.
Read the latest GPCE bulletin: GP contract amendments | special England LMC conference | parliamentary update
GPC England Chair, Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, has announced in her speech to Special Conference of England LMCs today (19 March, 2025) that the Government has formally committed to renegotiating a completely new national contract. GPC England has therefore now fully agreed changes to the 2025/26 contract.
We have received the Government’s commitment, in writing, “to working with the GPC England to secure a new substantive GP contract within this Parliament, without preconditions, based on collaborative work, and in the spirit of mutual trust and good faith, with general practice at the heart of a neighbourhood health service”.
The 2025/26 contract brings new investment of £969m on top of the £433m invested in autumn last year totalling £1.4bn investment since July 2024. This is a first step in the right direction for general practice in England and it follows two months of intense negotiations with the Government and a year of collective organising and action. Read more about the contract www.bma.org.uk/gpcontract
We know that you will still have some unanswered questions, and we will be sharing more guidance and FAQs very soon. We would like to offer our sincere thanks to everyone who has helped us by their efforts in taking collective action - we could not have secured this commitment to a new substantive practice contract without you.
Many of the items on the collective action menu are now superseded by the 25/26 contract but we now focus on what is needed locally: we continue to recommend practices work safely to prioritise safe high-quality patient care. We advise practices to engage with their LMCs and negotiate local contracts to secure appropriate resources to deliver safe care for our patients to stop patients falling through local gaps in commissioning.
These 2025-26 changes represent an important first step towards the recovery of General Practice services in England and set us on a journey towards making NHS general practice once again the jewel in the NHS crown.
Read the press statement: GPs have been neglected and bringing back the family doctor now a priority, says GPCE leader as DHSC commits to renegotiating new contract - BMA media centre - BMA
Contract negotiations – next steps
It has been a hectic few weeks with your GPC England officer team completing contract negotiations with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. For the past six weeks we have been meeting regularly to look at how the GP contract will change from April 2025. This was on the back of the announcement by Secretary of State Wes Streeting MP of additional investment into general practice for the forthcoming contractual year.
The next step is for GPC England to meet on Thursday 27 February where the officer team will outline the contract proposals, and a full discussion and debate will occur. GPC England is the nationally recognised body that oversees contract negotiations and have the authority to agree, reject or ask for changes to any contract proposal. It will be a full day of discussion, and we will let you know the outcome of any decision as soon as possible.
Plenty of other work has continued during this time including meetings with the RCGP, the Royal College of Nursing, pharmacy colleagues and many others to progress with our aim to make general practice a well-resourced and better place to work in the coming years. As ever, thank you for all you do day to day in such challenging circumstances. We are totally committed to make your day-to-day life better for you, your team and for the patients we all look after.
Dr David Wrigley
GPC England deputy chair
Email: dwrigley@bma.org.uk
February 2025 collective action tracker survey
The February collective action tracker survey opened on Monday 17 February and will remain open for two weeks, closing on 2 March at 5pm. Your response to this is hugely helpful to us and we would ask you take a few minutes to complete it.
Is your practice taking part in collective action? We encourage all GP partners or practice managers to share their experiences by completing this short survey. No identifiable data will be created as a result of this survey.
We continue to produce guidance around collective action, with the latest being guidance on how secondary care colleagues may be affected and ways they can support GPs in this campaign.
Please refer to our Safe Working Guidance Handbook and the BMA’s GP campaign webpage for more information. We appreciate your participation in collective action.
Special England LMC Conference 2025
The Special LMC Conference will be held on Wednesday 19 March 2025 at Friends House, London. The day will start at 10.00am and finish at 5.00pm. LMCs may wish to bear this in mind when arranging transport and accommodation.
This Special Conference was called at the 2024 Annual Conference of England LMCs. Under Standing Order 2 the only business to be considered will be “to discuss and determine what escalatory steps will be needed to ensure the survival of what still remains of English general practice”.
The deadline for registration has now passed. If you have any questions, please email info.lmcconference@bma.org.uk.
GP unemployment crisis
Despite the rising demand for family doctors to provide care, a Kafkaesque situation now exists in which a significant number of highly skilled GPs are struggling to secure work.
The BMA’s UK Sessional GP Committee surveyed salaried and locum members to help highlight this pressing and absurd situation of the growing unemployment/underemployment crisis among GPs. The survey closed on Monday and the results will be shared in due course.
Last week, we held a virtual rally to address the urgent issue of sessional GP unemployment.
If you missed the rally, you can watch the recording here.
Maternity leave
We are thrilled to announce a significant enhancement to maternity leave benefits for salaried GPs, following a recent unanimous vote by GPC UK. The number of weeks at half pay for maternity leave will increase from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. This change aligns maternity leave provisions with those of hospital doctors and ensures salaried GPs are no longer at a detriment to their hospital-based colleagues.
We have produced guidance, resources and template letters to aid the implementation of this change. The new maternity leave benefits are as follows:
13 weeks at SMP or MA, as entitled under the statutory scheme.
This change was made possible thanks to the unity and collective resolve of our profession.
By implementing this new maternity leave pay change, we're not just helping individuals, but also strengthening our profession. These enhanced benefits reflect our commitment to supporting salaried GPs throughout their working lives.
Next Steps: We recommend all practices discuss these changes with their salaried GPs. Following which, we recommend that a contract variation letter is issued to each salaried GP to reflect these changes. Further information and the relevant contract variation letters can be found on our website.
We recommend that you make these changes before 1 April 2025, but we encourage all practices to make these changes as soon as possible, to ensure that no salaried GPs miss out.
Spending review
The BMA recently submitted its representation to the Department for Health and Social Care for the Comprehensive Spending Review, setting the case for sustained investment. The BMA advocated for a 4.2% average annual increase in the day-to-day spending budget of DHSC, with funding reserved to deliver an uplift in the GP Practice core funding (Global Sum) by at least £40 per patient per year, amounting to £2.5 billion extra per year. In addition, the BMA also called on the government to build on the capital investment announced in the most recent budget and increase capital spending by a further £3.3 billion in real terms per year, to help deliver needed improvements to the primary care estate. The full submission can be accessed on the BMA website.
GPC England regional elections
The BMA GP Committee for England will be seeking nominations for voting members of the committee for the 2024-2027 sessions, as regional representatives for the following constituencies:
Nominations will open on 7 March 2025 at 12pm and close on 21 March 2025 at 12pm.
If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact elections@bma.org.uk.
For more information about BMA elections please go to https://www.bma.org.uk/elections.
Special Rules for end of life benefits (SREL)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released an online service for the SR1 form.
Healthcare professionals can support a patient’s benefit claim made with the Special Rules by completing an SR1 form. Once submitted, this tells DWP that a patient might be eligible for financial support as they may have less than 12 months to live.
The service aims to:
If you have any questions or problems using the service, email DWP at online.sr1@dwp.gov.uk
Access healthcare professional resources for the Special Rules for end of life
GPCE Guidance, media and contacts
Read the latest GPCE bulletin: https://bma-mail.org.uk/t/cr/AQiEtRUQn_gYGOHMsxfCw1mJQ0XyOY89cWX8xJ0PzOSo1aNOfU49kMuL1wZM3g
