LMCs instruct BMA to organise ‘peaceful’ GP protests

GPs may be asked to join ‘peaceful protests’ organised by the BMA to highlight pressures in general practice, following a vote at the recent LMC conference.

In March, local GP leaders attended a private special conference to debate escalated collective action following the tax hikes announced in the Autumn Budget as well as the Government’s 2025/26 contract offer. 

Ahead of the conference, Pulse reported that LMCs would vote on ramping up industrial action to ‘coordinated’ practice closures and ‘collective walkouts’.

The outcomes of the conference were initially private, but the GP Committee England has now shared an update with LMCs which reveals that representatives voted against these escalated collective actions. 

But they did call on the GPCE to ‘help GPs promote their work to the public’ by ‘coordinating organised marches and peaceful protests’, and ‘intensively engaging’ with the media, social media influencers and patient advocacy groups. 

As part of the same motion, LMC leaders voted against a proposal for a ‘coordinated national day of protest by all GPs and their staff, including practice closures and mass demonstrations’.

On the day of the special conference, health secretary Wes Streeting provided the GPCE with a written commitment to negotiate an entirely new GP contract by the end of this Parliament – which was a precondition for the BMA’s acceptance of 2025/26 contract changes. 

The BMA had also confirmed in February, immediately after the 2025/26 contract details were announced, that it was ‘no longer in dispute’ with the Government, meaning national collective action has been paused.

GP leaders also voted for a motion which advises all practices to now issue an ‘indefinite’ fit note on a patient’s first presentation, meaning all further fitness-for-work assessment is passed on to the Department for Work and Pensions.

This is because of the ‘huge number’ of appointments used ‘purely’ for fit notes, the motion said, and the fact that general practice ‘lacks the resources’ to do its job fully, ‘let alone that of DWP’.

However, this instruction to GPs goes against legal advice issued by the BMA along with the agenda in March, which said this motion would be ‘inducing doctors to breach their contracts’ and would ‘carry significant risk’ for the BMA and for doctors individually. 

A recent Government-commissioned review argued that the ability of GPs to issue fit notes and deal with work and health issues is ‘questionable’.

The Government also recently announced a raft of welfare reforms in a bid to save over £5bn in the coming years – but it promised to ensure these changes would not increase demand for fit notes or pressure on GPs. 

Another motion passed at the private LMC conference included a call on the GPCE to ‘demand of the government immediate clarification’ as to whether GMS practices are ‘NHS entities or private businesses’.

This confusion came to the fore in response to the National Insurance Contributions rises announced in October, which will apply to GP practices but not to other parts of the NHS such as hospitals. 

LMC leaders have demanded that the GPCE ‘publish a schedule of minimum private tariffs for services, for immediate implementation’, if the Government confirms that GMS practices are indeed private businesses.

Local GP leaders also called on practices to ‘boycott’ the upcoming requirement from October 2025 to keep online consultation tools open during core hours. 

The motion argued that this 2025/26 contractual requirement will ‘lead to waiting lists in general practice’, burnout among staff, and ‘the potential for patient safety concerns’.

As part of the update for LMCs, GPCE chair Dr Katie-Bramall Stainer suggested that although the BMA is no longer in dispute with the Government over the current contract, the outcomes of the conference could provide a blueprint for future disputes.

She said: ‘The sun was shining on Friends House on 19 March, and this Spring has seen unseasonably sunny weather – but storm clouds are on the horizon and will revisit us again. 

‘We need to be prepared and understand what, where and how we can secure leverage – with the support of the profession. This was the importance of this Special Conference.’

Following the conference in March, the GPCE told the advised practices to continue local action by refusing unresourced work from local commissioners.