In a speech to the UK LMC conference in Wales, GPC Wales chair Dr Gareth Oelmann said:  

Thank you for the opportunity to bring you an update from Wales at what is a pivotal moment for our profession, so soon after the election to the Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament. 

The last year has been one of endurance, discipline, and importantly progress. But none of that progress came easily, and none of it came by accident. It came because the profession in Wales stood together and was prepared, when necessary, to be firm. 

A year ago, general practice in Wales was in a very precarious position. Funding was falling well short of need, morale was extremely low, and there was a widening gap between political commitments to shift care into the community and the reality for practices struggling to remain viable. 

In the lead up to the 2025 Welsh LMC Conference, 99% of Welsh GPs rejected the Welsh Government’s contract offer. That level of rejection was unprecedented in Wales and sent a clear message that the situation had become untenable. 

In response, we agreed an improved interim contract settlement. This was taken not because it fixed the underlying problems, but because practices urgently needed short‑term financial stability to remain operational. 

Welsh Government committed at that point to early and meaningful negotiations for the 2025/26 contract, but those discussions did not take place as promised. When negotiations eventually started, the funding on the table did not reflect the scale of the crisis facing general practice. 

Throughout that period, GPC Wales had continued to prepare for collective action, maintained clear lines of communication with members, and made our position unambiguous to government: without credible funding, further progress would not be possible - and we would prepare to ballot members for collective action. With the memory fresh in their minds of the profession’s resounding rejection of the previous year’s contract offer, Welsh Government assured us of a forthcoming proposal with a multi-year funding strategy. 

On this basis, with the backing of full committee negotiations resumed, and in December of last year, following months of tripartite discussions, we reached a settlement that marked a turning point for Welsh general practice. 

We secured £41.9 million of recurrent investment, around 8% of our total contract value, backdated to April 2025. This included a full DDRB‑matching 4% pay uplift for partners, salaried GPs and staff, alongside an expenses uplift to recognise unavoidable cost pressures. 

Crucially, we also secured a guaranteed, ring‑fenced 5.8% recurrent uplift for 2026/27, worth around £30 million, an agreement which is separate from our annual round of contractual negotiations, DDRB uplifts & expense awards. That provided stability and certainty for practices from the start of the financial year, at a time of political transition with elections looming. 

This was not simply a contract deal; it was an acknowledgement that sustained underinvestment in general practice had pushed the system to the brink. For years, we have said: invest in general practice and the whole NHS benefits. In Wales, that argument finally landed. 

The agreement also delivered practical improvements for practices: enhanced sickness and parental leave reimbursements; a meaningful uplift to the partnership premium; a commitment to review the Global Sum Allocation Formula, unchanged since 2004; and progress toward modernising dispensing arrangements to protect rural sustainability. 

Alongside contract stabilisation, we are also beginning to see the early shape of system reform through the Community by Design programme and our work on GP‑led collaborative services. This is the first credible attempt in Wales, to support care at scale in a way that strengthens core GMS rather than undermining it.  

The principle we continue to insist upon is simple and non-negotiable: resources must follow cost. Collaboration without funding is merely workload transfer. 

Alongside this contractual progress, in March of this year, we reached an important moment for general practice in Wales in the wider political context. 
In the dying embers of the last Senedd Session, a cross party Senedd Health and Social Care Committee published its report into the Future of General Practice in Wales. That inquiry didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It was triggered directly by sustained pressure from the profession—through BMA Cymru Wales, Local Medical Committees, and most visibly through the Save Our Surgeries campaign, which saw a public petition attracting over 21 thousand signatures calling for fair GP funding 

The Committee’s conclusions will sound very familiar to colleagues across the whole of the UK. The report is clear, evidence‑based, and stark: general practice in Wales is at a tipping point. Chronic underinvestment, workforce shortages, rising workload, ageing estates and fragmented digital systems are all identified as systemic threats to sustainability, patient access and continuity of care.  

And crucially, the Committee recorded a finding that matters far beyond Wales: A conclusion that ‘access problems in general practice are the product of insufficient capacity, not inefficiency.’ That directly challenges years of political policy narrative that has too often placed responsibility on practices while withholding the resources required to deliver. 

What is particularly significant is how closely the report aligns with the profession’s core asks. It calls for:- 

• a rebalancing of NHS Wales investment towards general practice;  
• a formal review of the outdated Global Sum Allocation Formula;  
• and a credible national workforce strategy that addresses recruitment, retention, GP underemployment and multidisciplinary team development.  

It also affirms the central importance of continuity of care,  

highlights the urgent need to modernise GP estates and digital infrastructure, 

and supports formal safeguards to prevent workload being shifted from secondary care into primary care without resources or accountability. 

For us in Wales, this report represents a genuine step forward. It shows that sustained, collective professional advocacy can move the policy dial. The challenge now—as colleagues everywhere will recognise—is turning clear recommendations into meaningful delivery. 

As Wales approaches a new Senedd term—under Plaid Cymru leadership for the first time—there is an opportunity, but also a risk.  

Opportunity, because there is genuine political appetite to reset relationships with general practice;  

But Risk, because ambition without delivery will deepen the crisis.  

GPC Wales has been clear:  We will work constructively with the new administration, but we will judge their progress on outcome, not rhetoric. 

Our priorities for the year ahead are clear and, I suspect, deeply familiar to colleagues across the UK:  

• a workforce strategy grounded in reality, not aspiration;  
• fair funding in both quantum and distribution;  
• protection of clinical autonomy;  
• and reform that strengthens core general practice rather than bypassing it. 

Conference, the lesson from Wales is not that progress is easy—but that it is possible when the profession is united, organised and prepared to use its collective strength.  

Better times are ahead, but only if we continue to hold governments—of any colour—to account. 

Diolch yn Fawr 

 

Notes to editors

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