BMA urges GPs to contact their MP over unemployment crisis

An extra 1.26 million appointments could be delivered every month if all newly trained GPs were employed, the BMA has said, as it encouraged GPs to contact their MP for support on GP unemployment.

A template letter produced by the BMA calls on MPs and health secretary Wes Streeting to take action ‘to retain and to maximise the working ability of those [GPs] we already have’.

It adds that the current funding model is ‘working against GPs’ and ‘against patients’ interests’, by preventing GP practices from hiring the staff they need, with the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) ‘failing to provide a long-term solution’.

The union encouraged GPs to send the letter to their MP asking them to write to Mr Streeting outlining the need for the Government ‘to take the necessary steps to prevent GP unemployment’ and ‘increase available appointments for patients’.

The letter added: ‘This can be done by lifting restrictions on ARRS funding, and increasing core funding so that practices can hire the staff they and your constituents so desperately need.’

The BMA has also developed a calculator which invites GPs to calculate the number of extra appointments they could be delivering a week ‘if employment barriers were removed’.

The tool calculates three extra appointments for every extra hour a GP says they would like to work.

This is based on the union’s guidance which recommends 15-minute appointment averages and state no more than three hours of a session of GP care (four hours, 10 minutes) should be spent in contact with patients.

In a post on X, the union said: ‘An extra 1.26 million appointments could be delivered every month, if all newly trained GPs were employed.

‘New RCGP data shows 4,200 GPs finished their training last week. But many are struggling to find work. That’s why we’re calling on the Government to urgently provide ring-fenced funding to fix the GP unemployment crisis.’

It follows the union’s letter to the primary care minister Stephen Kinnock last week which asked to meet ‘at the earliest possible opportunity’ regarding the unemployment crisis.

In that letter, 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.

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

And a BMA survey found more than half (52%) 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 July resident doctors’ strike.

BMA guidance on how GPs can help

Use our ‘Write to your MP’ tool to tell your local representative how many hours you could be working, if you were employed.

Ask your practice to display these GP Unemployment leaflets in your patient waiting rooms to raise awareness of this issue. We need to show patients why the appointment times are only getting longer – there are not enough GPs and yet there are many wanting more work.