The GP collective action that maybe isn’t

Pulse editor Sofia Lind takes us behind the scenes of the political drama surrounding the general practice contract dispute

The talk of the town recently has been GPs supposedly returning to collective action. However, as the Department of Health and Social Care made clear to us in a statement, as far as they’re concerned this is not the case.

Referring to the BMA’s proposed action as a ‘data audit’, which could even be helpful for the future, it said it will have ‘no impact’. Not just on patients, but no impact, period.

The good news was this means that there was no new severing of negotiation relations, as per before Christmas when insults were flung between the BMA’s GP leadership and health secretary Wes Streeting – and the 2026/27 contract was imposed without even an attempt to gain GPCE sign-off.

The bad news is some confusion among GPs about an action which appears to be a vague threat to withdraw from some data sharing agreements. I won’t go too far into those criticisms – Copperfield has given his view, as well as some LMCs.

But perhaps it isn’t such a surprise that the collective action is a bit tame, to say the least. It is my understanding that the GPCE’s executive had strongly advised committee members against voting in favour of action.

The Government and NHS England had both also been very clear that should the GPCE opt to escalate the dispute about the contract, there would be no bilateral negotiations with them about the new wholesale GMS contract promised for 2028 onwards.

In a surprising twist, the question GPCE were asked to vote on last week actually badged together opting for collective action and willingly walking away from those negotiations. But you will notice that nothing has been communicated about that. I understand that the GPCE’s executive desperately do want to take part in those negotiations, and that several committee members who voted in favour of the motion did so under protest, stating that they did not want to walk away from negotiations.

So in a strange way, as it stands, everyone has sort of gotten what they asked for. All you have to do is try to make sense of that template letter.

Sofia Lind is editor of Pulse. Find her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn 

Discover our programme of free, CPD-accredited events – delivered face-to-face and online – designed to bring you practical clinical updates and expert-led sessions. Book your free place today and join us in person or virtually.