Our priorities
- Guidance on service provision, reducing transmission, PPE, shielding patients and PCNs.
- Your entitlements with annual leave, managing home visits and if you're indemnified.
- How to manage your practice during coronavirus.
Crisis in general practice
In July 2018, GPC wrote to the then-secretary of state for health, Matt Hancock MP, regarding the current crisis facing general practice. The letter outlines issues surrounding workload levels, expansion of the general practice and community workforce, technology and prevention, and adequate investment in primary care.
GPs and practices are under unprecedented pressure following COVID-19 and the hugely impressive involvement of general practice in delivering the vaccination programme, but also the major scale of the NHS backlog and recruitment and retention issue. This was highlighted in the speech by Dr Richard Vautrey, GPC UK chair, at the LMC UK conference 2021.
Read our 2018 letter to Matt Hancock MP
Read our guidance on managing workload
GP pensions and annual allowance
Following extensive lobbying on annual allowance and the pensions taper from the BMA there have been two important changes that affect the 2019/20 and subsequent tax years.
GP pensions and using scheme pays
GP workforce
Following the development and implementation of a range of national GP workforce initiatives over the last three to four years, we continue to update this resource with helpful guidance and practical support.
Controlling workload in general practice
We are proposing a workload control strategy to enable general practice to improve quality and safety, publicise reasonable safe workload limits and provide practices with practical tools to control workload.
Controlling workload in general practice strategy
COVID-19: trust GPs to lead
A set of principles addressing the need for change in general practice in England following the response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Primary care education tariff
GPC chair Richard Vautrey wrote to the secretary of state for health and social care to call for an increase in the funding of undergraduate placements in primary care.
Primary care education tariff letter
Saving general practice
The Saving general practice report, published in November 2017, sets out the BMA’s proposed solutions to address significant challenges within general practice. It lays out the areas that need to be addressed, such as workforce strategy, underfunding and workload pressures.
COVID-19 has highlighted that these issues still need to be addressed urgently.
Saving general practice report
Urgent prescription for general practice
Our Responsive, safe and sustainable: our urgent prescription for general practice report highlights the increasing pressures that practices are under. The report called for immediate action as part of a ‘rescue package’, and long term to provide a sustainable, viable and vibrant future for general practice.
GPC UK policy and guidance is set out by the GPC UK policy groups below and the LMC UK conference.
Surveys
By gathering your views and feedback, GPC is able to use surveys during negotiations and in discussions with the government, civil service and other organisations.
The BMA has undertaken over 10 COVID-19 tracker surveys since April 2020 to ensure the voice and experiences of UK doctors are heard by the public and Government.
The GP specific results of the fifth tracker survey, published on 1 June 2020, showed that the vast majority (85%) reported that the changes that they had made in the way that they were working had been very or somewhat effective at combatting the pandemic. The survey also indicated that a large majority (88%) wanted to maintain the greater use of remote consultations and 77% want to use video technology to a greater extent for clinical and MDT meetings in the future.
The following survey, published 21 June 2020, highlighted the scale of extra work being taken on by GPs during the pandemic, something that is continuing to increase. The survey showed that a lack of robust IT systems and digital solutions to help secondary care colleagues to complete necessary tasks and which can lead to work being transferred to general practice without sustainable services being put in place.
The seventh tracker survey, published 9 July 2020, revealed a significant increase in requests for practices to do additional activity without the necessary funding or workforce being made available to make this change sustainable.
The impact of the delay in releasing national COVID-19 funding for general practices was also highlighted in the survey which showed that significant numbers of practices were not being reimbursed by their CCGs for out of pocket expenses directly linked to tackling COVID-19.
See all our COVID tracker and vaccine surveys.
The BMA GP committee surveyed members about their practices as part of the GP premises review.
Our people
Chair: Dr Richard Vautrey
Nations chairs:
Alan Stout, chair of Northern Ireland GPC
Philip White, chair of GPC Wales
Andrew Buist, chair of GPC Scotland
Non-voting members: Ex officio
President, Sir Henry Burns
Acting chair of the representative body, Latifa Patel
Chair of council, Chaand Nagpaul
Treasurer, Trevor Pickersgill
Chair of GPC Scotland, Andrew Buist
Chair of GPC Wales, Philip White
Chair of GPC Northern Ireland, Alan Stout
Voting Members: Ex officio
Chair of the UK LMC conference, Mark Corcoran
Deputy chair of the UK LMC conference, Katie Bramall-Stainer
Elected by the annual representative meeting 2020 (from an English constituency)
Surendra Kumar
Zoe Greaves
Fay Wilson
Karthik Bhat
Shivani Jaiswal
Elected by the UK LMC conference
Rachel Ali
Samira Anane
Paul Cundy
Chandra Kanneganti
Krishna Kasaraneni
Denise McFarlane
Timothy Morton
Voting nominees of other bodies
GP trainees committee (two representatives)
Lynn Hryhorskyj
Euan Strachan-Orr
Sessional GPs committee (four representatives)
Ben Molyneux
Nicola Kemp
Krishan Aggarwal
Paula Wright
Medical Women’s Federation
Devina Maru
Medical Practitioners' Union (two representatives)
Jackie Applebee
Deborah Colvin
British International Doctors Association
Rakesh Sharma
Under-represented groups (voting members)
Prison doctors
Wayne Sturley
GP within first five years post CCT
Sarah Westerbeek
Non-voting nominees of other bodies:
Royal College of General Practitioners- Frances Cranfield, Gary Howsam
BMA patient liaison group (one representative) - Richard Grimes
Forty-three elected regionally
Norfolk/Suffolk/Great Yarmouth & Waveney - Ian Hume
Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire - Diana Hunter
Hertfordshire - Violane Carpenter
N and S Essex - Brian Balmer
Barking and Havering/Redbridge and Waltham Forest/City & E London - Terry John
Enfield and Haringey/Camden and Islington/
Barnet/Kensington and Chelsea/Westminster - Farah Jameel
Hillingdon/Brent and Harrow/Ealing/Hammersmith and Hounslow - Michelle Drage
Lewisham, Southwark and Lambeth/Bexley and Greenwich/Bromley - Penelope Jarrett
Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth/Kingston and Richmond - Richard van Mellaerts
Cumbria and Lancashire - Preeti Shukla
Sefton/Liverpool/Wirral - Rob Barnett
Cheshire/Mid Mersey - Ivan Camphor
Salford and Trafford/Manchester/Stockport - please contact [email protected].
Wigan & Bolton/Bury & Rochdale/W Pennine - Alan Dow
Northumberland/Newcastle and N Tyneside/Gateshead and S Tyneside/Sunderland - Roger Ford
Durham/Cleveland - please contact [email protected].
Northern Ireland - Alan Stout
Ayrshire and Arran/Borders/Dumfries and Galloway/Lanarkshire - Chris Black
Grampian/Highland/Orkney/Shetland/Western
Isles - Iain Kennedy
Glasgow and Clyde - John Ip
Forth Valley/Fife /Lothian/Tayside - Andrew Cowie
Gloucester/Avon - Tom Yerburgh
Wiltshire/Dorset - Andrew Purbrick
Somerset/N and E Devon - Mark Sanford-Wood
S and W Devon/Cornwall/Isles of Scilly - Bruce Hughes
Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire - Matt Mayer
Berkshire/N and E Hampshire - Simon Ruffle
Hampshire/Isle of Wight - Nigel Watson
Kent - Gaurav Gupta
E Sussex/W Sussex - Russell Brown
Surrey and Croydon - Julius Parker
E Yorks/N Lincs/Lincs - Kieran Sharrock
Barnsley/Doncaster/Rotherham/Sheffield - Clare Bannon
Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire - Peter Holden
Leicester and Rutland/Northamptonshire - Anu Rao
N Yorkshire/Bradford - Brian McGregor
Calderdale/Kirklees/Leeds/Wakefield - Richard Vautrey
Gwent/Bro Taf/Morgannwg - David Bailey
Dyfed Powys/N Wales - please contact [email protected].
Herefordshire/Worcestershire/Warwickshire/Coventry - Simon Parkinson
N Staffs and S Staffs/Shropshire - Chandra Kanneganti
Birmingham/Solihull - Robert Morley
Sandwell/Walsall/Wolverhampton/Dudley - Uzma Ahmad
GPC's policy groups focus on specific workstreams, and deliver work on behalf of GPC. You can find out more about our policy groups and their work below.
Clinical and prescribing
The clinical and prescribing policy group leads on matters relating to drugs and prescribing, which includes vaccinations and immunisations policy, and the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).
Commissioning and provider development
The commissioning and working at scale policy group leads on all matters relating to the commissioning and provision of services including CCG commissioning and practice based commissioning, enhanced services, out of hour (OOH), new providers and the internal market.
Contracts and regulation
The contracts and regulation policy group leads on regulatory and contractual issues relating to GPs working within the NHS, as well as the interface with private practice, and matters relating to prison doctors.
Education, training and workforce
The Education, training and workforce policy group leads on all education issues and the recruitment and retention of the general practice workforce.
Information, management, technology and information governance
The information management, technology and information governance policy group leads on all matters relating to NHS GP information, management and technology and all other relevant initiatives such as primary and secondary care IT interface, training and change management.
Premises and practice finance
The premises and practice finance policy group leads on financial and resource issues relating to GP practices as businesses and GP-specific payments including: pensions, tax and accountancy, premises and geography related costs.
Representation
The representation policy group work to ensure there is adequate representation of all GPs on GPC and within the NHS.
Associated committees
- GPC England
- GPC Northern Ireland
- GPC Scotland
- GPC Wales
- GP trainees committee
- Sessional GPs committee
- Local medical committees
Our meetings
The UK GPC meets twice a year to discuss the latest issues facing general practice. These meetings are open to GPC members, however, the committee also welcomes observers from LMCs (local medical committees).
LMCs interested in sending an observer to a GPC meeting should contact the GPC office to arrange a suitable date. All travel and other expenses for LMC observers must be met by the relevant LMC. A maximum of three LMC observers may attend any one meeting.
Meeting dates:
- Thursday 23 September 2021
- Thursday 24 March 2022
All meetings take place from 10am to 5pm either virtually or at:
BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP
For more information about GPC meetings, email [email protected].
How to join GPC UK
There are many advantages to becoming involved in our committees. You can actively influence BMA policy-making and negotiations, represent your colleagues' voices and develop your leadership skills.
Each committee has a few routes to becoming an elected member. In the case of GPC UK, these are:
- Seats/term - every year, a third of the 43 UK regions elect a representative for a three-session term.
- Timeline - elections are usually held in February or March.
- Eligibility - all GPs are eligible to stand and vote if they live or work in the relevant regions.
- Seats/term - every year, seven delegates of the LMC conference are elected to GPC UK for a one-session term.
- Timeline - elections are held at the LMC conference in May.
- Eligibility - only LMC conference delegates can stand and vote in this election.
- Seats/term - every year, elections for 10 seats on GPC UK take place for a one-session term.
- Timeline - the nomination period opens a month before ARM, and voting closes a few days after ARM.
- Eligibility - all UK GPs BMA members can stand for election but only ARM delegates can vote.
The election section below is kept up to date with details about any running elections, so make sure you keep checking it throughout the year.
Elections
ARM elections 2021 to 2022
GPC UK is holding elections for 10 seats for a one-session term, with at least one member having their principal place of work in each of the devolved nations.
Eligibility
To stand in this election, you must:
- be a BMA member and a GP in the UK
- have a BMA online account.
Only ARM delegates can vote in this election.
Nominations and casting your vote
- Nominations - from 12pm on Monday 5 July 2021 to 10am on Monday 13 September 2021.
- Ballot - from 1pm on Monday 13 September to 5pm on Thursday 16 September 2021.
Read our guide on how to use our online system for elections.
Results
Results will be announced from Friday 17 September 2021 on the election portal.
If you have any questions about these elections, please email us.
Get in touch
If you are interested in finding out more about the work of GPC, email [email protected].
Take part in one of our free courses designed to give you the right skills to:
- break down equality and inclusion bias (CPD-accredited)
- value difference and inclusivity
- live out BMA behaviour principles.