GP collective action to start next week if no ‘mitigations’ on access, says BMA leader

The BMA’s GP committee will push ahead with collective action next week should the Government fail to put ‘mitigations’ in place around unlimited urgent access, the leader of English GPs has said.

GPs could take collective action from 1 May unless the Government put in safeguards regarding same-day access, GPC chair Dr Katie Bramall said in a message to GPs.

The message came after talks between the union and NHS England which have led to the commissioner backtracking on a target for one in four GP referrals being diverted through new advice and guidance requirements.

Dr Bramall welcomed the letter but said that, in order to avoid collective action, progress is needed on the GPC’s ask for safeguards on unlimited same-day urgent access, as GPs are now contractually required to ‘deal with’ all urgent patient requests on the ‘same day’, as part of the imposed 2026/27 contract.

She said: ‘[The committee] put the Government on notice that it needed to shift on two key priorities by 30 April, and that GPs in England would move to collective action if that did not happen.

‘In our talks with DHSC and NHS England we have focused on those key priorities for the profession with the context of the imposed contract: pausing plans to proceed with “advice and refer” which would see GPs’ right to refer patients in jeopardy, and potential targets to reduce referrals on acute trusts by as much as 25%; mitigations around unlimited same-day urgent care demand, once practices have reached their capacity on a given day, given safety concerns for patients, GPs and their practice.

‘We recognise that our outstanding ask around unlimited and unsafe patient demand remains.

‘GPC England will review all positions, and should those mitigations not be sufficiently met by 30 April, we reserve the right to escalate to collective action beyond this date.’

Last month, the union revealed that GPs could protest against the imposed contract by taking action around how general practice patient data is used by the Government.

At the time, Dr Bramall said that the committee was looking at collective action around patient data which would put ‘a spanner in the works’ for the Government.

Pulse understands that the action would be looking at the areas where practices voluntarily share data and for what purposes.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told Pulse: ‘This Government has invested nearly £1.7bn into general practice to put it on the road to recovery.

‘Investment goes hand in hand with modernisation which includes rolling out online access and delivering same day appointments for urgent care.

‘To support these changes, we have recruited 2,000 more GPs and ringfenced nearly £300 million for an additional 1,600 GPs.

‘Thanks to hard working GPs across the country these changes are fixing the front door of the NHS, improving patient access and ending the 8am scramble.

‘We are in dialogue with the GPCE and remain committed to working collaboratively with the profession as we rebuild general practice and would urge the BMA to reconsider collective action.’