BMA demands urgent meeting with primary care minister over GP unemployment

The BMA has written to the primary care minister asking to meet ‘at the earliest possible opportunity’ regarding the GP unemployment crisis.

Over 3,000 GPs will gain their Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) this week, but the BMA said the lack of substantive work available means ‘many face uncertainty’.

The union reiterated its demand that the Government address the crisis by considering an additional ring-fenced and funded GP practice-level reimbursement scheme or adapted practice-level retainer scheme.

The letter was sent to Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock from the BMA’s GP Committee for England, Sessional GPs, and GP Registrars Committees.

‘In the context of escalating demand, ongoing workforce pressures, and growing access issues for patients, it is deeply concerning so many newly qualified GPs are struggling to find work’, it said.

‘As set out in the chair of GPCE’s recent letters to the Secretary of State, we are asking Government to urgently consider an additional ring-fenced and funded GP practice-level (not PCN ARRS) reimbursement scheme or adapted practice-level retainer scheme to reduce GP under/unemployment as soon as possible.

‘We believe this would be consistent with the Government’s own pledges in the NHS Long Term Plan to reduce inequalities in both access and outcomes.’

In a letter to Mr Kinnock last month, GP Committee England chair Dr Katie Bramall said ‘to avoid further dispute’, the GPC requested the Government:

Transfer the Primary Care Network Directed Enhanced Service Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme monies into practice-level reimbursements with defined neighbourhood outcomes from April 2026

Create an emergency additional GP practice-level reimbursement scheme to reduce GP
under/unemployment as soon as possible.

Last week, a BMA survey found half of doctors finishing foundation training had no ‘substantive employment or regular locum work’ secured for this month.

Following the survey’s publication, the union announced it was launching an ‘additional linked dispute‘ demanding action on unemployment after training, to go alongside pay demands from the 25-30 July resident doctors’ strike.

BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan met with health secretary Wes Streeting to discuss the dispute on Tuesday and described it as ‘informative’.

They said they had raised ‘the urgent need to provide enough jobs for doctors and bring an end to the current situation where thousands of resident doctors apply for far too few roles’.

Today’s letter to the Government further claimed: ‘If all 3,500 GP registrars completing training this year were able to move into substantive fulltime NHS GP roles, they could collectively deliver over one million additional appointments per month. That would make a real and immediate difference.’

It comes as the RCGP today shared figures with Pulse which estimated 4,200 GPs will receive their CCTs and qualify in 2025 – up by nearly half (49%) in the last five years.

RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: ‘These figures show that we are getting excellent new GPs into the workforce – our top priorities must now be ensuring they can find appropriate work, and keeping them in the profession, delivering patient care, for years to come.

‘We continue to hear reports from GP Registrars that they are facing struggles finding appropriate roles – which is paradoxical at a time when patients crying out for more appointments, and general practice is under intense workload and workforce pressures.

‘According to members, many practices are struggling to take on new roles due to lack of funding, resources and infrastructure.

“While we support the ambitions of the 10-Year Health Plan and the shift of more healthcare from hospitals into the community, it just won’t be possible without the numbers of GPs needed to deliver this extra work.

‘We look to the revised Long-Term Workforce Plan, due soon, for greater commitments and a more detailed way forward as to how the Government will to recruit and retain the workforce we need.’

A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘We inherited a ludicrous situation where patients couldn’t get a GP appointment, while GPs couldn’t get a job.

‘By cutting red tape and backing GPs with record funding we have recruited an 2000 extra GPs in a year, and public satisfaction with GP services is finally on the rise.

‘We are committed to working constructively with GPs to fix the front door of the NHS.’