Ahead of the Health Secretary’s speech at Labour Party Conference, the BMA’s GP committee in England (GPC England) has given Wes Streeting 48 hours to avoid entering into dispute with general practice and to prioritise the safety of patients and practice staff.  

From Wednesday, 1 October 2025, patients will be able to make unlimited urgent and non-urgent online consultation requests from 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, despite no additional workforce to manage the predicted increased volume in activity. 

Online systems currently cannot distinguish between non-urgent and urgent patient queries and with practices already understaffed and overworked, GPs fear this could lead to potentially serious and life-threatening problems being delayed or missed entirely. Doctors will need to be reallocated away from booked appointments to manage the potential online triage tsunami leading to fewer GP appointments with patients.

GPC England want to see NHS England and DHSC implement the safety measures they originally promised in February this year, when the contract was conditionally agreed upon based on those safeguards. GPs are worried that without any increase in practice capacity, considerable amounts of practice time will be diverted to reviewing the barrage of online requests and queries thus reducing time for routine appointments and planned patient care. At a time when the Government wants to bring back the family doctor, this change is likely to take GP appointments away from patients and damage continuity of care.

In February this year, DHSC and NHS England confirmed in writing that ‘necessary safeguards’ would be in place before 1 October 2025 to ‘avoid urgent clinical requests being erroneously submitted online’. Despite this, the Government has decided to press-on, allowing unlimited online requests to be made without any safety measures or IT functionality to handle the increase in enquiries.

BMA GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall said:

“We agreed to these changes on the condition that ‘necessary safeguards’ would be put in place before Wednesday 1st October. This was agreed – in writing – with Government, DHSC, and NHSE in February this year. Now almost eight months later, it is deeply disappointing to see promises broken. We have worked incredibly hard to rebuild the trust between our exhausted profession and the Government, but now what are England's GPs and practice teams supposed to think?

“The Secretary of State knows that when these changes come into effect it will likely lead to the creation of hospital-style waiting lists in general practice, reduce face-to-face GP appointments - as we'll be triaging a barrage of online requests, consequently putting patients at risk of harm as we try to find the urgent cases among the huge pile of unmet patient need that's out there.

"Mr Streeting needs to listen to us and understand how we believe GPs can deliver his ambitions safely. General practice is the leader in NHS tech innovation, we do everything online from systems to prescriptions, referrals and appointments. We’re not resistant to change, but we will be when the safety of patients and practice staff is at risk. The Government has 48 hours to change course, avoid this dispute, and keep to their promises.”

ENDS 

Notes to editors

• The chair of GPC England Dr Katie Bramall is attending Labour Party Conference in Liverpool and will be available for select interviews. For interview bids, please email [email protected] or call 020 7383 6448  

The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.