NHS England has now written to integrated care boards to request for them to plan to cope with GP ‘collective action’ from Thursday 1 August.
The GP ballot on industrial action closes at midday on Monday 29 July, the BMA has warned.
“Whilst the ballot remains open – and the degree of participation by GP practices in any collective action is uncertain – the BMA have indicated that they will encourage participating practices to take part at scale from 1 August,” Mike Prentice and Dr Amabda Doyle OBE wrote.
The anticipated ballot was first announced in May and opened on Monday 17 June to GP partners.
In the event of a ‘phase two’, a statutory ballot on suggested contract breach actions (e.g. action short of strike or strike), the BMA has confirmed that this could include other GP members, e.g. salaried GPs and GP registrars.
The BMA’s General Practitioners’ Committee has been balloting GP partners in England on ‘collective action’ against the general medical services (GMS) contract for 2024/25. After it was imposed, 99% of participants rejected it within a BMA referendum last March.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “It’s always an anxious time when industrial action is on the table, most of all when the summer holidays are in full swing and practices should really be sliding into summer mode.
“Since GP locums are not employees of practices, they can’t be balloted, but nevertheless are still integral pieces in this complex jigsaw, both in how practices deliver care to patients, and how practices and their employed staff are supported to do their job.
“At this point in time, a powerful way for GP locums to support colleagues could be simply to act as a sounding board, a third party that’s divorced from any vested interest in the practice”.
