The BMA has advised GP practices to continue refusing unresourced work from local commissioners, while outcomes from the recent LMC conference on collective action remain private.
This was one of the ten actions the BMA put forward as part of its collective action last year while it remained in dispute with the Government.
But last week, during a special conference of LMCs, the BMA’s GP Committee England announced that it had received a written commitment from the Government to negotiate a wholly new GP contract within this Parliament, which was the union’s pre-condition for accepting 2025/26 contract changes, and it announced an end to its dispute.
Pulse had previously revealed that the special LMC conference would decide on motions proposing escalation of collective action, including coordinated GP practice closures for an agreed period of time.
But the BMA decided to hold this conference in private in order to ‘control how and when’ the outcomes of the motions are released.
The union told Pulse this week that it is in the process of preparing an update on the conference and hopes to share this with LMC conference representatives soon.
In the meantime, the GPCE told the profession in its most recent newsletter that it will be focusing on ‘what is needed locally’ since many of the items on its collective action menu have been ‘superseded’ by the 2025/26 contract.
GPCE deputy chair Dr Samira Anane said: ‘We advise practices to continue to engage with their LMCs and negotiate and secure appropriate resourcing to support the delivery of safe patient care, helping to stop patients falling through gaps in local commissioning.’
As well as the motion proposing practice closures and walkouts, LMC leaders also voted on a motion calling on the GPCE to organise a ‘coordinated national day of protest’ by all GPs and their staff.
Another motion called for the collection of undated resignations from GP contract holders to use as part of any industrial action.
Pulse understands that a motion criticising PCNs, which have been used ‘as a mechanism to exert direct control over’ GP partnerships, passed in all its parts except one.
Motion 8 in full
AGENDA COMMITTEE TO BE PROPOSED BY NORTH YORKSHIRE:
That conference asserts:
(i) the PCN DES has been used by NHS England as a mechanism to exert direct control over workforce development within GP partnerships, undermining their independent status (PASSED)
(ii) the PCN DES has diminished the importance of the GP’s role within primary care, shifting focus away from their pivotal position in delivering patient care (PASSED)
(iii) that any future industrial action should include targeted efforts to disband PCNs, with a demand to reallocate their resources directly into core funding to strengthen general practice (PASSED)
(iv) that all GP practices should withdraw from the PCN DES at the next DES contract renewal date (DID NOT PASS).
GP leaders attending the special conference told Pulse that despite the BMA no longer being in dispute with the Government, the motion results are intended as levers for the GPCE to use should future negotiations not go the way they planned.
They also emphasised that collective action is still ongoing locally, with uncommissioned work remaining a strong focus.
One LMC member cast doubt on the reliability of the Government’s promise to negotiate a new contract, pointing to its track record of ‘broken promises’.
He told Pulse: ‘The current Government made lots and lots of promises before they got elected, and I think there’s a litany of broken promises since – can we trust a Government that’s breaking promises by the minute, with a contract they are promising us in two years? It is about jam in two years.’
‘I’m not really sure whether the letter from the Government or the conversations that Stephen Kinnock’s had reassure me to any great extent that the future of general practice is safe in their hands,’ he added.
The BMA had previously promised to publish updated guidance which provides clarity for practices on if and how they should proceed with collective action.
