BMA demands A&G ‘pause’ or GPs could take collective action from 30 April

The BMA’s GP Committee could take collective action from 30 April unless the Government ‘pauses’ plans around mandated advice and guidance and put in safeguards regarding same-day access.

Following several edits to motions during today’s meeting, the committee eventually voted not to take action from 1 April, but to delay it by one month while instating new demands.

Health secretary Wes Streeting wrote to GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall ahead of the meeting to urge against collective action, while promising to begin negotiations over a new GMS contract.

But the final GPCE motion, passed unanimously, said that ‘the communication received today from the SoS does not provide sufficient assurance that the needs of the profession will be met’.

It added that ‘GPC England is prepared to negotiate so long as discussions will pause plans to proceed around “Advice & Refer”; and mitigate same day demand once practices have reached their daily safe working limits.’

‘Should these needs not be met by 30 April, the committee reserves the right to immediately escalate to collective action,’ it added.

A referendum of BMA’s English GP members concluded yesterday with 98.9% voting to ‘reject’ 2026/27 contract changes ‘and its approach to making them’, and to ‘call upon the Government to return to direct negotiations with GPCE to jointly develop a new GMS contract’.

GPCE had previously said collective action could start as early as 1 April and could focus on patient data sharing.

From April, practices will be contractually required to use A&G across specialities ‘prior to or in place of a planned care referral where clinically appropriate’, but the BMA is currently getting legal advice on this amid fears that the requirement could remove GPs’ right to refer.

GPs will also have to ‘deal with’ all urgent patient requests on the ‘same day’, as part of the 2026/27 contract.

GPCE chair Dr Katie Bramall said: ‘GPC England is prepared to accept the Government’s offer to meet as soon as practicable following the Easter recess, so long as discussions begin with firstly, how we may work together to pause plans around “Advice & Refer” and secondly, how we may work together to mitigate same-day demand, once practices have reached their daily safe working limits.

‘Once we have together ensured that these immediate priorities are met, we will move to agree principles, scope, and timeline for GMS reform. Should these needs not be met by 30 April, GPC England reserves the right to immediately escalate to collective action.’

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland LMC, which had backed the BMA in urging GPs to reject the contract offer, said the 2026/27 contract changes were ‘bad for practices, bad for patients, and will lead to further reduction in the health of the nation.’

Its chief executive Dr Grant Ingrams said: ‘There is a huge undeniable amount of national and international data that shows that supporting and investing in general practice is the only national policy which leads to increased productivity, better financial control, and better health outcomes. It therefore beggars belief that once again imposed changes onto the NHS for 2026/27 is deaf to this evidence, and indeed undermines it even further.

‘It becomes harder and harder to ignore that our current Secretary of State and their national health policy makers appear to be unable to read, assimilate, understand, and act upon the evidence from previous research and indeed reports that they have commissioned. Whether this is due to an innate stupidity, stubbornness to change their mind set, or, as we suspect, due to an underlying unjustifiable hatred of general practice is hard to say.’

It comes as resident doctors will stage a six-day walkout next month (from 7 to 13 April) after the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC) voted to reject the Government’s offer on pay and jobs. 

RDC chair Dr Jack Fletcher said the Government had attempted to ‘shift the goalposts’ on the pay aspect of the deal by proposing pay increases be spread over three years instead of two. 

The BMA said the Government’s acceptance of the 3.5% pay increase recommended by the DDRB yesterday, which it described as a ‘crushing blow’ to doctors in England, had also contributed to the decision to strike. 

Health secretary Wes Streeting criticised the RDC for ‘unilaterally’ rejecting the Government’s offer on behalf of resident doctors, which included 1,000 additional specialty training posts being made available next month. 

However, Mr Streeting left the door open for further negotiations, giving the BMA until next Thursday (2 April) to accept the deal and offering to meet with the ‘entire’ committee.  

NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said in a board meeting today the NHS should regard this and future strike action as ‘probably a long distance’ run ‘rather than a sprint’, while financial reset and accountability director Glen Burley said he would put details of the negotiations with the BMA ‘into the public domain’.