New GP collective action against imposed contract could start on 1 April, says BMA

Grassroots GPs in England have been urged to reject the Government’s contract as part of a referendum run by the BMA.

The union’s GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall said that the results of the referendum will be discussed by the committee later this month and could determine the beginning of collective action as soon as 1 April.

All GPs and GP registrars who are BMA members and who practice in England are eligible to vote in the referendum launched by the GPC and should have, by now, received an email from BMA, Dr Bramall added.

The 2026/27 contract, which was unilaterally imposed by the Government, has already been rejected by the GPC, who now are calling on the Government to get back to the table to negotiate a new GMS contract directly with the BMA.

During a BMA webinar yesterday, she said: ‘The discussion at the GPC England meeting on Thursday 26 March could determine that collective action then commences.

‘We do not need to have another non-statutory ballot to be able to progress with any collective action, so the soonest date that collective action could begin would be Wednesday 1 April, that’s why this referendum so important.

‘It’s your opportunity to tell government that this contract and their approach is unsafe and unacceptable. They must return to direct negotiations with us – not broader consultations at large – negotiations in good faith. We’ve got to agree a new GMS contract as soon as possible. We can’t wait any longer.’

Dr Bramall said that if the GPC get ‘a strong enough mandate’ from the referendum, the GPC will push for ‘immediate action’ from 1 April, and this would include a ‘single, unified’ protest action for all practices, rather than a menu of options as proposed in 2024.

She said: ‘The feedback from two years ago, when we had our collective action menu, was that practices and GPs preferred to have a single, simple, unified action.

‘Some of you might remember, I did a video from my kitchen table in June 2024 because we were very concerned around rumours that we’d heard that changes were going to be made unilaterally to the GP connect update record functionality, and I implored practice managers and partners to get back to their practices, go into the back end of GP Connect, switch off a button, toggle it off, because that would prevent that data flow.

‘Huge numbers did it – like nine out of 10 practices – within the next 36 to 48 hours. That carried huge weight, and I think made a massive difference to where we then got to.

‘We’ve learned from that, and any actions that we take this time are going to be simple, with a single, unified action.’

She urged GPs to vote to reject the contract in the referendum and said that collective action could be potentially be escalated in the future to industrial action and breach of contracts, following a ballot of the profession.

She said: ‘The actions we’re going to potentially look at are not initially going to be breaching contracts, but absolutely, given the feedback from practices and GPs, looking at breaching contracts collectively is an option for the future.

‘And if we decide to pursue that, and it’s the committee that decides, then we would come out with a ballot ahead of doing that.

‘It’s most likely that that would look at specific questions around, for example, unlimited demand, unlimited requests online, face to face and telephone, and a lack of safeguards, a lack of operational pressures, escalation level frameworks or security for our patients.

‘Ultimately, we could close our doors. And absolutely there are risks of breach notices, but they would have to be given to all practices that take place, and we would have to give really clear guidance to all practices. We’d need to stand together, because this would be the end of the game.’

During the webinar, the GPC also revealed that it may challenge a new contractual requirement around the expansion of advice and guidance (A&G), amid concerns that it could remove the right for GPs to directly refer patients.

Read all of our coverage of the 2026/27 contract here.

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