BMA leaders to debate whether GPs should re-enter dispute over 10-year plan

BMA leaders will debate risks for the profession associated with the 10-year plan and whether GPs should go back into formal dispute with the Government.

The union’s council has called a special representative meeting to ‘debate the risk of the 10-year plan to the medical profession at large’, and the delivery of safe and effective care to patients, which will be held on Sunday (14 September) and will be attended by health secretary Wes Streeting.

The agenda for the meeting includes a motion which ‘condemns and opposes’ the plan ‘as it is currently written’, and demands support for the BMA GP committee England in re-entering dispute with the Government.

It also demands that no general practice contracts beyond those already held by trusts be permitted to be transferred to trusts, with general practice and secondary care ‘each respecting the contracts and expertise of each other’.

It comes after Pulse revealed in July that GP leaders were considering re-entering a formal dispute, following concerns about the lack of progress on a new GMS contract and the content of the 10-year plan.

The GPC’s dispute with the Government over pay and conditions ended in March, following a written commitment from the Government to negotiate a wholesale new GMS contract within this Parliament.

However, the 10-year plan does not mention a new GMS contract for general practice, only two new contracts for neighbourhood services which ICBs will be able to award to other providers, including NHS trusts.

And the GPC England chair has recently told Pulse that the Government has an opportunity over the next few months to avoid a new dispute with GPs but it is going to be a ‘fragile’ time.

Another motion included in the agenda points out concerns that the 10-year plan ‘threatens the independent contractor status of GPs’ and calls on the BMA to recognise ‘the importance of independent contractor status of GPs for clinical autonomy, continuity of care, patient advocacy, GP recruitment and sustainable primary care’.

It also asks the BMA to ‘reaffirm’ its commitment to the independent contractor model in general practice and calls for the union to lead ‘a co-ordinated campaign’ against any proposals within the 10-Year Plan that would ‘undermine or dismantle’ the independent contractor status of GPs.

At the special meeting, doctor leaders will also debate unemployment and whether the 10-year plan will go far enough to address the crisis.

One of the motions to be debated says: ‘This meeting notes the commitment in the NHS 10-year plan to expand specialty training places and prioritise UK graduates for foundation and specialty training, and to prioritise other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period for specialty training.

‘However, it is concerned that the proposed expansion will not adequately address issues with postgraduate recruitment nor create a sustainable medical workforce, and condemns the current mass unemployment of doctors across the UK.’

The motions in full

Motion by CONFERENCE OF LMCs AGENDA COMMITTEE:
That this meeting, noting the multiple upheavals to contracting presented by the 10 Year Plan, believes the Plan poses an existential threat to the GP independent contractor model, the GMS contract, and therefore the very concept of the family doctor, and:-
i) condemns and opposes the 10 Year Plan as it is currently written;
ii) finds abhorrent and requires the removal of the ability to performancemanage and transfer to larger bodies the contracts of GP practices judged to be in the ‘bottom 10%’;
iii) demands that no General Practice contracts beyond those already owned by Foundation Trusts be permitted to be transferred to Foundation Trusts, with General Practice and secondary care each respecting the contracts and expertise of each other;
iv) demands that GMS contracts remain in perpetuity, rather than ‘for now’ (as stated in the plan), and that new GMS contracts be offered to both existing and new partnerships as the population expands in number and location;
v) supports GPC England in re-entering dispute with the Government and enacting all escalatory outcomes of the Special Conference of England LMCs of March 2025 unless and until sufficient legislative safeguards are introduced to protect GMS and the partnership model;
vi) demands full resource restoration for GP practices with the necessary accompanying pay restoration for sessional GPs and GP partnerships to levels commensurate in real terms to 2004 GMS.

Motion by BIRMINGHAM DIVISION:
That this meeting believes the Government’s10-Year Health Plan for England threatens the independent contractor status of GPs and:-
i) recognises the importance of independent contractor status of GPs for clinical autonomy, continuity of care, patient advocacy, GP recruitment and sustainable primary care;
ii) reaffirms the BMA’s commitment to the independent contractor model in general practice;
iii) calls for the BMA to lead a co-ordinated campaign against any proposals within the 10-Year Plan that would undermine or dismantle the independent contractor status of GPs;
iv) believes if the independent contractor status of GPs is not safeguarded, that the 10-Year Plan should be opposed.

Motion by THE AGENDA COMMITTEE (TO BE PROPOSED BY MEDICAL STUDENTS CONFERENCE AGENDA COMMITTEE):
That this meeting notes the commitment in the NHS 10-year plan to expand specialty training places and prioritise UK graduates for foundation and specialty training, and to prioritise other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period for specialty training. However, it is concerned that the proposed expansion will not adequately address issues with postgraduate recruitment nor create a sustainable medical workforce, and condemns the current mass unemployment of doctors across the UK. Therefore, this meeting calls upon Governments to:-
i) implement UK medical school graduate prioritisation for the UKFP26 and specialty training 2026 round 1 recruitment cycles; ii) expand foundation and specialty training places in line with medical school growth, pausing further medical school expansion until this is achieved;
iii) create a long-term workforce plan to model the number of senior doctors required in the future and fund the corresponding number of medical school, foundation and specialty training places.

Source: BMA