BMA Accepts 25/26 GP Contract

NEWS UPDATE: BMA Accepts 25/26 Contract 

The BMA’s GP Committee for England (GPCE) has agreed in principle to accept proposed amendments to the 2025/26 GP GMS (General Medical Services) contract on behalf of its GP members in England, following two months of intense negotiations with the Government.

In a press release issued this morning it was announced that at a GPCE meeting held yesterday (Thursday), the committee agreed to accept proposed reforms – including an overall funding uplift of £889 million for the 2025/26 GMS contract – providing the Government commits to renegotiating a completely new national contract within this Parliament. The GPCE has stipulated that this commitment must be confirmed in writing by mid March 2025.

The changes will provide a 7.2% cash growth in contract funding, including:

•  Almost £800 million national funding into the ‘Global Sum’ to help cover rising costs – including staff and premises expenses and patient list growth

• A relaxation in the rules for the Primary Care Networks – these are groups of GP practices that work together to deliver a wider range of services to the local community – directed enhanced service, allowing individual practices to decide which roles to hire using their additional staff budgets, rather than having this dictated centrally

• An increase in the fees paid to GPs for routine childhood vaccinations; and

• An additional £80 million investment – separate from the £889 million funding uplift – for a new Enhanced Service that compensates GPs for advice and guidance requests: the correspondence that GPs send to hospital consultants to ensure patients receive the best care in the most appropriate setting.

Click here to read the press release in full. The Department of Health and Social Care has also issued a press release.

At the moment we just have the headlines and as soon as we have more detail, we will share it with you.

GPCE Update: Collective Action in light of 25/26 Contract Announcements

A message from GPC England

GPCE continues to recommend practices work safely and continues to advise that where commissioning gaps exist, or where commissioned pathways are failing practices and patients, these be renegotiated locally. 

GPCE’s dispute with Government may be over – pending written assurances around the wholescale renegotiation of a GP practice contract across England this Parliament, but the focus at a local and system level continues, where patients must be protected from gaps in local commissioning, and practices who are filling these gaps out of goodwill, must be resourced, or serve notice to local commissioners. LMCs are central to galvanising a collective bargaining position across practices, using our national advice.

Our safe working guidance has been GPC England policy for a decade, and it continues to be so. We will continue to update our guidance in line with new contracts as they develop. Contractual asks, e.g. around access to online consultations, or requesting non-urgent /routine queries, does not mean GPs must find unlimited capacity jeopardising safe patient care.

Should negotiations around a new contract fail to deliver what the profession needs, then GPCE will need to potentially discuss re-entry into dispute and action escalation. 

Many of the items on the CA menu will potentially be superseded by the 25/26 contract, and so we will be producing updated guidance as soon as we can for the profession to provide the necessary clarity.