GPC England's LMC Update: 7 February 2025

Dear colleagues

GP Collective action – Secondary care guidance

Thank you all for continuing to develop and expand on our collective action to protect our patients and practices.

We recognise the particular challenges across the primary and secondary interface, and want to ensure all specialist colleagues are aware of the purpose and aims of GP Collective Action. To this end GPC England and the UK Consultants Committee have developed explanatory resources hospital and trust-based colleagues.

Our new webpage https://www.bma.org.uk/secondarycareGPaction outlines how secondary care colleagues may be affected and ways they can support GPs in this campaign. This includes a downloadable PowerPoint presentation which LNCs (Local Negotiating Committees) can use in their patch, an at-a-glance fact sheet that can be displayed in Trusts, and a recorded webinar offering further insights.

Please also continue to refer to our collective action Protect your patients, protect your practice webpage, which explains in more detail the nine actions that practices can choose to take. It also contains more information such as the Safe Working Guidance Handbook, Campaign resources and Patient materials.

As negotiations for the GP contract 2025/26 progress, this is a pivotal moment for all GPs to unite as a profession – not just for safe and sustainable general practice, but for a safe, sustainable and stronger NHS too.

Primary care joint parliamentary event 28 January

Last week GPC England jointly hosted an MP parliamentary drop in event for MPs in Westminster. The event on the future of primary care was held jointly with the British Dental Association, Community Pharmacy England, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee and the Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers and was attended by over 40 MPs. These included members of the health and social care select committee and shadow health ministers. During the event we outlined key concerns related to workforce and funding and encouraged MPs to sign a joint letter to the Health Secretary calling for increased support for primary care.

Special England LMC Conference 2025

The Special England LMC Conference will be held on Wednesday 19 March 2025 at Friends House, London. This was supported during the Conference of England LMCs held in November last year, as an opportunity to evaluate the critical state of general practice in light of any government contractual offer for 2025/26, and ahead of the Spring three-year Spending Review and the publication of the NHS Ten Year Plan:

The focus will be to discuss and determine what escalatory steps will be needed to ensure the survival of what still remains of English general practice.

Please note that the deadline for registration is Monday 17 February 2025 and no late requests for registration will be accepted after this date. Instructions to register have been sent to LMCs. Thank you to all LMCs who have submitted motions.

If you have any questions, please email info.lmcconference@bma.org.uk.

Help address the GP unemployment crisis

Despite the rising demand for family doctors to provide care, a Kafkaesque situation now exists in which a significant number of highly skilled GPs are struggling to secure work.

The BMA’s UK Sessional GP Committee is looking for salaried and locum members to help highlight this pressing and absurd situation of the growing unemployment/underemployment crisis among GPs. Please take a few minutes to share your experiences by completing our survey.

Your input is critical to understanding the full extent and impact of this crisis and to strengthen our lobbying efforts for tangible change.

Join the sessional GPs unemployment virtual rally

Wednesday 12 February, 7.30-9pm|We invite you to join this virtual rally and address the urgent issue of sessional GP unemployment. This is your chance to be part of the campaign, share your voice, and mobilise for change.

Together, we can amplify our message and advocate for progress, plus, you can learn how the BMA is committed to supporting you and all GP colleagues.

NHS Mandate and NHSE planning guidance - improving access to general practice

Published last week, the UK Government’s new mandate for the NHS and NHS England’s planning guidance for 2025/26both emphasise improving patient access to general practice and primary care. Neither document establishes clarity in terms of how this will be achieved, but the new Mandate does refer to investment in upgraded GP surgeries and in data and digital tools.

2023-24 type 2 pension forms for sessional GPs

We have recently highlighted the change of form and upload process for type 2 pension forms for 2023-24. Sessional GPs are required to complete a Type 2 Self-Assessment for each pension year, so that NHS England can ensure that all NHS pension contributions have been correctly paid and then accurately allocated to that GP’s NHS Pension Scheme record.

The relevant forms must be completed by those who have undertaken practitioner pensionable work between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, and should be submitted to PCSE by 28 February 2025. PCSE and the BMA Pensions Committee have held two webinars to explain the new form and the process to upload the forms. Watch a recording of the webinar

UK LMC Conference – Deadline reminders

The deadlines for the UK LMC conference being held on 8 and 9 May in Glasgow are as follows:

Motions should be submitted via this form by 12 noon, on 17 February 2025. Registration deadline is 3 April 2025 and you can register here

For instructions on how to submit motions and register, please see the email sent on 6 December 2024.Please note that if you haven't been registered by this deadline you will not be eligible to attend the conference, even if hotels/trains etc have been booked. It is the LMC’s responsibility to ensure that all their reps and observers are registered. If you are unsure if you have been registered, then please email Karen Day at kday@bma.org.uk. Any other queries can be sent to info.lmcconference@bma.org.uk

Resident Doctor dispute on exception reporting

Despite its best-efforts during negotiations, the BMA’s UKRDC (UK resident doctors committee) have announced they will be entering into a dispute with the Government over the contractual reform of exception reporting (ER). The GPRC (GP registrars committee) met last week and passed a motion which offers their full support to UKRDC in entering a dispute to drive the negotiations to an effective resolution. Read more here

GPC England Regional Elections – coming soon

GPs Committee England will soon be seeking nominations for voting members of the committee for the 2024-2027 sessions, we will be electing one representative from each of the following regions:

· Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire

· Hertfordshire

· North and South Essex

· Barking & Havering, Redbridge & Waltham Forest and City & Hackney

· Cumbria and Lancashire

· Wigan & Bolton, Bury & Rochdale and West Pennine

· South & West Devon and Kernow

· Hampshire and Isle of Wight

· Kent

· Surrey and Croydon

· East Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire

· Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield