General practice across the UK is facing chronic underfunding and a drive to replace GPs with workforce trained to a lower standard. We have a UK wide crisis, and each nation faces the same challenges of workforce, workload and demand and massive funding gaps. These issues manifest themselves slightly differently in each nation but remain the core challenges to be addressed.

Our priorities

The Value of a GP

We need GPs now more than ever.

As patient need soars, general practice is buckling under immense pressure. GPs are leaving the profession at an alarming rate, driven by burnout, unmanageable workloads, and the pull of more attractive careers abroad. Even more concerning, many fully trained GPs remain unemployed or underemployed while communities struggle to access care.

In response, GPC UK has produced The Value of a GP, a comprehensive new report that brings together a robust body of evidence to highlight the irreplaceable role of general practice in the UK.

The report demonstrates the far-reaching impact of GPs, not only on the health and experience of individual patients but on the overall efficiency, sustainability, and economic value of the NHS itself.

General practice is at a pivotal moment. Without bold and immediate action to support and retain GPs, we risk the collapse of a service that underpins the entire NHS.

Crisis in general practice

GPs and practices across the four nations are still experiencing unprecedented pressure following COVID-19  with declining GP numbers, rising demand and workload pressures, recruitment and retention issues, the major scale of the NHS backlog and knock-on effects for patients. GPCUK are encouraging practices to adhere to safe working guidance in their nation, to help practices prioritise their limited capacity to deliver safe, high-quality care. 

Read about the pressures general practice is under across the UK.

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

Read the safe working guidance:

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

GP pensions and annual allowance

The BMA’s Pensions Committee represents all BMA members across the UK and has carried out extensive lobbying on pension taxation, which resulted in positive changes to annual allowance and lifetime allowance in the Spring 2023 budget. The committee continues to monitor the situation and highlight the detrimental impact that re-introducing or reforming pension tax may have on doctors.   

The pension pages on the BMA website offer information and guidance for GPs and the BMA’s Pensions Department are available to offer support to members at [email protected]

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

See also our sessional GP overtime guidance.

GPC UK

GPC UK consists of six component committees: GPC England, GPC Scotland, GPC Wales, Northern Ireland GPC, Sessional GPs committee and GP Registrars committee. These committees have delegated responsibility for taking forward much of the work on behalf of GPs across the UK, including negotiations with the respective governments.

• GPC England: BMA general practitioners committee England
• Scottish GPC: BMA general practitioners committee Scotland
• GPC Wales: BMA general practitioners committee Wales
• Northern Ireland GPC: BMA general practitioners committee Northern Ireland
• Sessional GPs Committee: BMA sessional GPs committee
• GP Registrars Committee: BMA GP registrars committee

Our people

Chair: Katie Bramall-Stainer 
Deputy Chair: Frances O’Hagan 

Executive team:
Iain Morrison, chair of GPC Scotland
Gareth Oelmann, chair of GPC Wales
Mark Steggles, chair of Sessional GPs 
Victoria McKay/Cheska Ball, co-chairs of GP Registrars 

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 9 October 2025 (start of new session 2025-26)
• Thursday 16 April 2026

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

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: 

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

Elections to the GPC are now closed.

Get in touch

If you are interested in finding out more about the work of GPC, email [email protected]