Protect your patients, protect your GP practice

GP partners/contractors in England have voted overwhelmingly for Collective Action, the BMA are urging practices to start immediately. You can view more on the BMA campaign here.

The BMA now urges GP partners/contractors to start taking at least one of the easy, safe and sustainable actions proposed.

GPC England is not recommending which action(s) practices take. It is for each practice to pick and choose as they see fit. You may decide to add to your choices over the days, weeks, and months ahead. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Some of these actions can be permanent changes – professional, collective and a single opportunity to embrace sustainable and safe change. Others may be de-escalated following negotiations with the new Government.

Collective action will turn up the pressure on the Government to do the right thing for general practice and patients. We need a new contract that is fit for purpose.

  • Limit Daily Patient Consultation - Limit daily patient consultations per clinician to the UEMO recommended safe maximum of 25. Divert patients to local urgent care settings once daily maximum capacity has been reached. We strongly advise consultations are offered face-to-face. This is better for patients and clinicians
  • Service Notice on Voluntary Services - Serve notice on any voluntary services currently undertaken that plug local commissioning gaps and stop supporting the system at the expense of your business and staff.
  • Withdraw Permission for Data Sharing Agreements - Withdraw permission for data sharing agreements that exclusively use data for secondary purposes (i.e. not direct care). Read our guidance on GP data sharing and GP data controllership.
  • Feeeze Sign-up to any New Data Sharing Agreements or Local System Data Sharing Platforms - Freeze sign-up to any new data sharing agreements or local system data sharing platforms. Read BMA guidance on GP data sharing and GP data controllership.
  • Stop Engaging with the e-Referral Advice & Guidance Pathway - Unless it is a timely and clinically helpful process in hour professional role. 
  • Stop Rationing Referrals, Investigations, and Admissions - Refer, investigate or admit your patient for specialist care when it is clinically appropriate to do so. 'Refer via the 2-week pathway' should still be adhered to. Outside of UTC (urgent suspected cancer) referrals (formerly two-week-wait), consider writing a professional referral letter rather than using a locally imposed proforma/referral form - these are not contractual, use and quote BMA guidance/sample wording.
  • Switch off GPConnect Update Record Functionality - Switch off GPConnect Update Record functionality that permits the entry of coding into the GP clinical record by third-party providers. 
  • Switch off Medicines Optimisation Software - This is embedded by the local ICB for the purposes of system financial savings and/or rationing (rather than the clinical benefit of your patients).
  • Defer Signing Declarations of Completion for 'Simpler Online Requests' - Defer signing off “Simpler online requests” until Spring 2025: do not agree to keep your online triage tools on throughout core practice opening hours, even when you have reached your maximum safe capacity. 

UPDATE - Better Digital Telephony Note on ”Better digital telephony”: the contract variation notices ICBs will have sent in August mean you are contractually required to have enabled date extraction by 1 October 2024. Read the GPCE update on this here.

Resources for Practices