GPs across England have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking collective action.

More than 8,500 GPs in England took part in the ballot and 98.3% voted in favour of taking part in one or more examples of collective action.1

This means, from today, the Association will encourage practices to choose from a list of ten actions, and practices can choose to implement as few or as many as they think appropriate.2

Actions may include refusing to share patient data unless it’s in the best interests of a patient, referring patients directly to specialist care rather than following longer and more complex NHS processes and switching off NHS software which tries to cut prescribing costs. 

Historically, practices have worked above and beyond their contracts to keep up with patient demand, while being instructed to offer extra services by NHS England.

Despite warning the Government that they’re being forced to do more with less, GPs have been repeatedly ignored and not given the funding they need to handle growing pressures.

Of the entire NHS budget, general practices get only 6% of guaranteed funding. The BMA’s GPC England Committee believes this needs to gradually increase by 1% year on year, to 15% - all the while protecting existing funding across the wider system.

GPs have now reached a desperate point but will not be shutting their doors. In fact, many of the actions will lead to GPs spending more time with their patients, while showing how problems are generated by NHS wider system and national mismanagement and bureaucracy, in a bid to make the Government take seriously GP practices’  requests for extra support.

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of BMA's GP committee for England (GPCE), said: “We had a huge response to this ballot, and the results are clear – GPs are at the end of their tether. This is an act of desperation. For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to. We are witnessing general practice being broken. The era of the family doctor has been wiped out by recent consecutive Governments and our patients are suffering as a result.

“There have been countless opportunities to address the funding crisis in general practice, and despite almost 100% of GPs voting to reject the 2024/25 contract earlier this year, still nothing was done. Practices are now struggling to keep the lights on, can’t afford to hire much needed GPs and other staff, and some have even closed for good. The new Government is keen to find solutions but the causes of practices closing and GPs leaving remain, these actions will help keep practices open and keep GPs in the NHS workforce so can buy time for Mr Streeting to make the necessary changes that were promised in the Labour Party’s election manifesto.

“We understand that the new Government has inherited a broken NHS, and we’ve had some positive conversations with the new Health Secretary about the situation in general practice. The DDRB award is a small a step in the right direction but we still have hundreds of millions less resource to run our practices compared to even five years ago. Practices are still closing, so we have no choice but to move ahead with collective action to protect our practices, and our patients.

“This will not be a ‘big bang’. It will be a slow burn. It’s likely that impact may not be felt for some time. We hope this will give the new Government time to consider our proposed solutions including fixing our contract once and for all.

“General practice should be the front door of the NHS, not the doormat. We don’t want to have to take this next step but must if we’re to stop our services from collapsing completely. A key Labour manifesto promise was to bring back the family doctor, and we look forward to making sure that can become a reality as soon as possible.”

Further information 

1. The breakdown of the ballot results are as follows:

• ^{GPs were asked: 'Are you prepared to undertake one or more examples of collective action as outlined in the BMA campaign to Protect Your Patients, Protect Your Practice?'}
• ^{The ballot was carried out between the 17th June and 29th July 2024}
• ^{Number of eligible voters: 12,590}
• ^{Total number of votes cast: 8,518}
• ^{Turnout was at 67.7%}
• ^{98.3% voted 'yes' (8,375)}
• ^{1.7% 'no' (143)}
• ^{Number of spoilt ballots was zero}

2. The full list of actions can be found here. Because GPs will be following their working contracts only, this means that collective action can carry on indefinitely if necessary.

Notes to editors

The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.