England LMCs vote in favour of GPs refusing online access compliance
England LMCs have voted in favour of GP practices refusing to comply with new online access requirements through core hours.
They will now ask BMA to prepare new options for collective action, including non-compliance with the requirements, should the Government refuse to revise them.
It comes as primary care minister Stephen Kinnock has written to the GPC England reiterating the Government’s claim that they agreed to the contract changes.
At their conference in Manchester today, LMC leaders voted in favour of a motion also demanding the ‘immediate removal’ of the access mandates, which ‘reduce care to box-ticking targets and put patients at risk’.
Proposing the motion, North Staffordshire LMC chair Dr Chandra Kanneganti said: ‘These access mandates reduce care to tick boxes and targets. They strip away the human relationship at the heart of the medicine and turn compassion into compliance.
‘GP practices are spending time equivalent to more than 200,000 appointments a week implementing these new online access changes, which is increasing the waiting time for our patients and working for our hours for staff as a result. So today, we say enough.
‘We demand that these mandates are withdrawn immediately, and we call on GPC England to prepare robust options, including non-compliance if Government refuses to change course. Colleagues, this is about professional integrity and patient safety.’
The BMA is currently in formal dispute with the Government over the online consultation requirements, data access and the 10-year plan, including a lack ‘any meaningful progress’ to deliver the promise of a new GMS contract.
Since 1 October, GPs are contractually required to keep online systems open for patient requests between 8am and 6.30pm for routine enquiries regardless of capacity – but the GPCE has previously warned that GPs would struggle to implement the requirements safely, and that practices would be accused of breaching their contractual obligations should they reach capacity.
As revealed by Pulse, contingent on internal advice from senior BMA leaders, the GPCE would consider balloting the profession on industrial action as the next step in the dispute – and practices could be urged to actively breach their contracts by diverting or switching off online access.
Mr Kinnock wrote to GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall yesterday highlighting a letter that Government negotiators sent in February that had said the 1 October online access would ‘not be contingent on any specific software solution being found’. The letter further added that the BMA had not disputed this.
He said: ‘We provided practices with six months’ notice to prepare, delaying the rollout from April 2025 to October 2025 in addition to the NHS providing extensive support to practices in the lead up to the introduction of these requirements and continue to do so.
‘This includes reaching out to any practices struggling to help them to prepare, including providing guidance, webinars, case studies, and bringing in GPs and practice staff who are experts in service redesign and improvement in general practice.’
The BMA has previously said it only agreed to the changes subject to the ‘appropriate safeguards’ being in place ahead of the implementation, to prevent urgent requests being erroneously submitted via the online tools.
But Mr Kinnock said that the ‘final correspondence’ on the issue, ahead of the GPCE vote ‘on the final package’, stated: ‘The implementation of the proposal would not be contingent on any specific software solution being found. Practices will be welcome to use disclaimers on their website as they see fit.’
He added: ‘We did not receive any response or further communication from GPCE on this issue during the consultation following that correspondence.
‘We trust this provides the absolute clarity you request and that you are now clear that the 1 October contract changes are exactly as agreed by you in February and supported by the wider GPCE at their vote.
‘We hope that we can move forward constructively with the GPCE, ending this dispute and building an NHS that is fit for the future.’
Pulse has contacted the BMA for comment.
The motion in full
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE: That conference is deeply concerned that the 2025 / 26 contract variation requires practices to maintain continuous online, telephone and physical access throughout core hours (08:00–18:30). Conference:
(i) rejects the government’s contractual requirement for GP practices to guarantee universal patient access throughout all core hours, condemning it as a cynical political stunt that is unfunded, unsafe, and knowingly undeliverable in the context of current workforce collapse
(ii) insists that practices must retain flexibility to deliver access in ways that reflect the needs and demographics of their patient population
(iii) insists that online consultations may be curtailed when safe working limits have been reached
(iv) demands the immediate removal of these access mandates, which reduce care to box-ticking targets and put patients at risk
(v) mandates GPCE to prepare options for action, including non-compliance with access requirements, should government refuse to revise the 2025 / 26 contract variation.
CARRIED IN ALL PARTS
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READERS' COMMENTS [5]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
It’s time for the GPC to grow a pair and fight back
Incompetence, inexperience, recklessness and failure are the hallmarks of NHSE ,DHSC and ICBs – this has been recognised at the LMC conference and BMA despite the self serving failures and accolade seeking failing RCGP who should have led the charge- rational negotiation will not be effective with irrational unaccountable groups who do not understand simple common sense and cogent, professional, economical business planning which are the hallmarks of General Practice.
Astonishing. So he admits there is a risk to patients by telling us it will fine to be disclaimers on our websites…
GPs need to stop being subservient to these rules. I include myself.
Perhaps instead of a webinar for GP practices, the great overlords could have actually informed the general public what all this entailed. If it is so amazing, perhaps they would have done that. Instead, most national newspapers ripped off one of my TikTok videos in the absence of any actual publication from the government to prepare the public for the changes. I feel like I need to share the feedback the patients leave with them somehow, but I’d probably get reported to the GMC as they misinterpret the patients’ language as a proxy for my own.