Doctors in primary care should seek to not uphold DSAs (data-sharing agreements) held by their practices by not disclosing patient information to third-party organisations.

The move comes as GPs across England are being urged to take collective action during May as a response to the Government’s failure to provide assurances over the BMA’s concerns with the national general medical services and personal medical services 2026/27 contracts.

The contracts, which were rejected by almost 17,000 GPs voting in a BMA-led referendum in February this year, were imposed on doctors by the Government last month.

In taking part in the action, practices are being directed to contact their local ICB (integrated care board) outlining that staff will stop agreeing to honour voluntary secondary use DSAs, and to forward any new DSA requests received directly to the BMA.

Information value

By engaging in this lawful action, the BMA GPs committee England hopes to demonstrate to the Government and ICBs the extent to which patient data held by GP practices is relied on.

In doing so, GPC hopes to show how significant a role general practice plays in determining the wider health service’s ability to function as well as future aspirations by the Government to use patient data in a proposed single care record. GPC also hopes to make clear more publicly the efforts doctors go to in order to ensure the proportional use of patient data so it feels like less of an arbitrary action.

Speaking about the collective action, BMA GPs committee chair Katie Bramall (pictured above) insisted the action would not negatively affect patient care but would highlight GPs’ anger with the imposition of the 2026/27 contracts.

She said: ‘Practices are working in crisis-level environments, where every day feels "exceptional" in terms of unlimited demand outstripping our available workforce and premises space. The imposed contract is an impossibility for too many, and the subsequent rationing of care for our patients is unreasonable and feels unsafe.

‘As GPs, we take our responsibilities for the data we hold about our patients very seriously. The confidentiality of this information, and how it is used, must be appropriate and not undermined by the reputational impact of organisations whose values may not align with the NHS or the profession. 

‘This action will not affect patient care, but we hope it will bring us closer to finding a solution that protects GPs and delivers the care our patients and communities deserve.’

Workload fears

Following the announcement of the 2026/27 GMS and PMS contracts earlier this year, GPC England has voiced its opposition warning that the contents of the contracts effectively require already hard-pressed GPs to do ‘more with less’.

These include ensuring unlimited same-day access for patients with urgent clinical needs, and an end to the capping of consultation requests that must be responded to even when working at full capacity.

While action remains ongoing, GPC England has stated its willingness to continue negotiations with Government, with the committee set to meet with ministers for further discussions on 21 May.