Following the Government's failure to respond to the BMA's warning over unsafe new online consultation rules, the General Practice Committee in England (GPCE) is now in dispute with Government. Committee chair Dr Katie Bramall said: 

"At the start of this year, the government promised GPs across the country that they would implement the necessary safeguards that would enable practices to operate safely and prevent patient harm with online consultations and other IT changes. Unfortunately, this has not happened. Despite repeated warnings of the potentially significant risks, the government has refused to listen and act over GP concerns for patient safety.  

"General practice online systems now risk being inundated with both non-urgent and urgent patient queries, leaving practices - regardless of size and the volume of queries they handle - to manage the fallout. We can only hope that no life-threatening issues are missed or delayed but it's a very real and present danger when we are handling over a million appointments each day nationwide. 

"Entering into dispute with the government is the first step in showing how GPs react to threats to patient safety and we are in the hands of the profession. This isn't about pay, it's about patient safety. GPs are terrified they are forbidden to divert patients to telephones if they are full from the avalanche of online requests that will come, and without the promised safeguards that the government agreed to. 

"For the secretary of state to say it is ‘absurd’ that requesting a GP appointment is harder than 'booking a haircut' displays a deep misunderstanding of how general practice works and how understaffed and under resourced it continues to be 14 months into their term of power. Millions of online consultations happen each month and practices are only asking to switch these off when they are completely full. What else does the government expect us to do? 

"We want to support the government's ambition, but this can't be at the expense of patient safety and GP practice staff wellbeing. We need more capacity, and unemployed GPs need jobs - promising the impossible whilst ignoring the solutions is profoundly disappointing, as are the broken promises. We implore the government to not take this any further, work with us on bringing in patient safeguards that will make a difference and let us continue to serve our communities." 

Notes to editors