Pharmacist partners in general practice are being asked whether they would support potential 'collective action' by GPs in the coming weeks.

GP partners could soon be taking action - such as limiting daily patient contacts and switching off various software - if a non-statutory ballot, being held by the British Medical Association (BMA), is successful.

It comes as part of the BMA's 'Protect your patients, protect your GP practice' campaign and is in response to concerns over the 2024/25 GP contract.

The non-statutory ballot, which closes next week, proposes nine options for action (see below) and, if successful, will be enacted from 1 August 'across the whole practice team'.

Alongside the ballot, the BMA is seeking the views of other clinical and non-clinical practice partners, including pharmacist partners, to share their views on the proposed action via an online form.

As part of the campaign, GP practices can 'pick and choose as they see fit' from nine proposed actions, and may increase the number of actions they are taking over time.

This may include:

  1. Limiting daily patient contacts per clinician to 25, and thereafter diverting to local urgent care settings
  2. Switching off Medicines Optimisation Software that has been embedded by the local ICB 'for the purposes of system financial savings and/or rationing, rather than the clinical benefit of your patients'.
  3. Switching off  the recently introduced GP Connect functionality that allows community pharmacists to send information to patient records
  4. Stopping engaging with the e-Referral Advice & Guidance pathway unless clinically helpful
  5. Serving notice on any voluntary services currently undertaken that plug local commissioning gaps
  6. Stopping rationing referrals, investigations, and admissions
  7. Withdrawing permission for data sharing agreements which exclusively use data for secondary purposes
  8. Freezing sign-up to any new data sharing agreements or local system data sharing platforms
  9. Deferring signing declarations of completion for 'better digital telephony' and 'simpler online requests'

Many GP surgeries have previously already turned off GP Connect over concerns of 'workload dump'.

NHSE tells ICBs to prepare for collective action

This week, NHS England (NHSE) warned that collective action by GP practices could impact the whole NHS system and warned integrated care boards to begin preparing for it now.

A letter sent from NHSE to ICBs and trusts yesterday said that there is ‘uncertainty’ regarding the scale and impact of GP collective action, but that ICBs must take ‘a whole system view of potential impacts’ and ‘risks to patients’ when planning their response.

NHS England said that planning by ICBs should take into account the ‘secondary impacts and consequences’, including potential pressure on urgent and emergency care, elective and discharge pathways and impacts on mental health and community services.

It said: ‘It remains our hope that action will be averted. However, whilst discussions take place it is important we plan for all contingencies to keep patients safe – as we have in other periods of industrial action.

‘We are committed to having arrangements in place that manage the impacts in a reasonable worst-case scenario.

‘Regions and ICBs should draw on the expertise of their primary care teams in anticipating and managing changes to service levels in primary care but must take a whole system view of potential impacts and risks to patients when planning ahead.’

It added that there may be ‘short, medium, and longer-term changes’ to patient flows between and across primary care, 999, 111, and UTCs/MIUs and that ICBs should also understand any potential impacts on diagnostic and elective activity.

‘As in other disputes, maintaining services for patients with urgent needs, such as those with deteriorating conditions, meeting urgent diagnostic requirements, and ensuring timely triage to essential services will be key,’ NHS England said.

Parts of this article first appeared on our sister title Pulse.