GP Collective Action

Over the last few years, we in General Practice have had contracts imposed on us which have included unfair terms, mainly regarding underfunding for the services we deliver. As a result of this underfunding, despite our best efforts we have been unable to deliver the level of care our patients deserve, and we have been unable to award adequate pay increases and recruit additional staff.

In order to push back on these contract impositions, the British Medical Association launched a ballot regarding potential collective action.

The result of this ballot was that 98.3% of GP Partners votes yes to collective action to push back on unfunded and bureaucratic work.

There are 10 different actions being proposed by the BMA: GP contract 2024/25 changes

Following discussions at several forums within the Practice, we have decided we will partake in this collective action to ensure our voice is heard.

However, we have not opted for any actions that will negatively impact direct patient care, or affect your access to the Practice.

We have now decided we will partake in the following actions:

• Stop rationing referrals, investigations and admissions
• Not use any referral forms or proformas (except for urgent 2 week wait referral), as we are not contractually obligated to. This will mean writing a referral letter only to refer patients onto secondary care/specialist services instead of completing long, complex, bureaucratic forms.
• Switch off GPConnect Update Record functionality that permits the entry of coding into the GP clinical record by third-party providers.
• Withdraw permission for data sharing agreements that exclusively use data for secondary purposes (i.e. not direct care).
• Freeze sign-up to any new data sharing agreements or local system data sharing platforms.

We would like to strongly reiterate that this will not disrupt the direct care you receive from us as your primary healthcare provider, but it is a way of us pushing back on unfunded work and bureaucratic processes.

Thank you for your support.

Published: Aug 14, 2024