GPs have formally re-entered a dispute with the government over 2025/26 contract changes, Pulse reports.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the General Practitioners’ Committee for England, wrote: “We have consistently offered to work with government and NHS England to, as agreed by your officials in writing from February 2025, implement necessary safeguards to avoid urgent requests being erroneously submitted online by patients.
“We also have grave concerns regarding unlimited patient need being place upon GP practice teams, and the refusal by you to permit the temporary diverts to allow GPs to catch up, whilst keeping telephones lines on and doors wide open.”
The BMA outlined four conditions to end the dispute, including assurance that practices will not be in breach of contract should they be forced to divert urgent same-day patients to phone or walk-in contacts to prevent system overwhelm.
GPs face spending ‘millions’ of appointments a year answering emails under a clause about online access in the new GP contract, leaders warned last week.
The dispute comes as the BMA also grapples with the ongoing problem of GP un- and underemployment. The union has scheduled a specific event on the issue in two weeks’ time.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “It is highly concerning, though sadly unsurprising, that GPs have been forced to re-enter a formal dispute with the government over these contract changes. The GPC is absolutely right to demand assurances that practices will not be penalised for diverting urgent patients should systems become overwhelmed.
“The attempt to impose a mandatory, unsafe shift to online consultations, particularly given the grave concerns about managing unlimited patient need, was fundamentally flawed from the beginning. The profession has been warning for months that current online systems struggle to differentiate urgent from non-urgent queries, meaning GPs face spending ‘millions’ of appointments a year simply answering emails instead of seeing patients.
“This kind of administrative imposition and chronic micromanagement, without proper long-term planning, inevitably exacerbates the existing crisis of GP underemployment and burnout, preventing our skilled workforce from providing the essential care patients deserve.”
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