Get in touch
If you want to find out more about the work of the sessional GPs committee, share ideas or speak to us about any issues or concerns where you may require their support, please don't hesitate to get in touch: [email protected]
For news, opinion and updates from the sessional GPs committee, read the latest newsletter.
The Sessional GPs Committee is part of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee (GPC). It provides national representation for all salaried and locum GPs.
Sessional GPs are doctors working in general practice who are not principals, partners or contractors within a specific practice. This includes doctors working in a range of roles, for example:
- Salaried GPs
- Locum GPs
- Prison GPs
- Working in out of hours (OOH)
- Retainer GP
- GP returner
Our priorities
The committee’s work focuses on three key priority areas: workforce, workload and wages.
Workforce
Underemployment remains one of the biggest challenges for sessional GPs. The committee is therefore exploring measures to expand employment opportunities, including renewed national commitment to the GP retainer scheme with ring-fenced funding and improvements to workforce initiatives such as ARRS. Alongside this, the committee continues to prioritise strong representation and engagement with sessional GPs to ensure their views and experiences inform national policy and workforce planning.
Workload
Rising patient demand and workforce shortages continue to place significant pressure on GPs. The committee’s work in this area includes promoting safe working guidance, supporting improvements to GP-to-patient ratios and strengthening job planning processes. It is also focused on improving contractual compliance, ensuring that salaried GPs are employed in line with the standards set out in the BMA model contract and that members are aware of the support available where these standards are not met.
The committee will also continue to monitor developments across the NHS, including neighbourhood working, to ensure that changes to service delivery do not negatively impact GP employment, workload or contractual protections.
Wages
The committee is working to ensure that salaried GPs receive, as a minimum, the annual DDRB uplift across all four nations. However, our ultimate aim is to explore options for phased pay restoration.
Resources
We have brought together a range of resources to support sessional GPs, including:
Salaried GP Model contract and template
- Salaried GP model contract and model offer letter guidance
- Salaried GP handbook
- Salaried GP model contract toolkit
Locum practice agreement
DDRB pay range and recommended BMA pay range
Job planning guidance and GP diary
Annual leave calculator
Advice on locum pensions
If you are looking for other advice and guidance but have not been able to find what you are looking for, please contact us: [email protected]
Our people
Chair: Kim Rollinson and Amy Small
Deputy chair: Veno Suri
Executive members: Mark Coley and Bethan Roberts
East Midlands- Kalindi Krishna Tumurugoti
East of England- Caroline Rodgers
London- Malinga Ratwatte, Krishan Aggarwal and Veno Suri
North East- Rachel McMahon
North West- Mark Coley
Northern Ireland- Joe Duggan
Scotland- Kim Rollinson
South West- Lucy- Jane Davis
South East Coast- Sarah Westerbeek
South Central- Christopher Davidson-Fox
Wales- Bethan Roberts
West Midlands- Shabana Alam
Yorkshire and Humber- Amy Small and Peter Tinsley
Our meetings
The sessional GPs committee meets four times a year to discuss the issues that affect all salaried and locum GPs. These meetings are open to committee members only, but non-members can apply for the BMA committee visitors scheme.
Committee meetings:
- Tuesday 15 July 2025 (hybrid)
- Tuesday 11 November 2025 (virtual)
- Monday 16 March 2026 (virtual)
- Tuesday 16 June 2026 (hybrid)
All meetings take place from 10am to 4pm either virtually or at:
BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP
For more information, 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 sessional GPs committee, this is:
- Seats/term - every three years, elections for one sessional GPs representative (with at least two salaried GPs and two freelance/locum GPs*) from each of the 13 UK regions, including Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, take place for a three-session term.
- Timeline - elections are usually held in March or April.
- Eligibility - all sessional GPs who are BMA members in the UK are eligible to stand in this election. All GPs can vote in this election.
*Salaried or freelance/locum GPs will be eligible if, for the six months before the election, their NHS general practice performer's work has been solely as a salaried and/or freelance GP (excluding work as a GP appraiser) or a GP trainee, and an average of at least seven hours per week of NHS general practice work has been undertaken for that period.
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 for the Sessional GPs committee are now closed
- Sessional GPs will be eligible if, for the six months before election, their general practice performer’s work has been solely as a sessional GP (excluding work as a GP appraiser) or a GP registrar, and an average of one or more session per week of general practice work has been undertaken for that period. A GP registrar can stand in the election as long as they will be a sessional GP from the point of election. Once elected, they must continue to meet Sessional GP status and working time requirements. Each member shall be required to inform the Chair of the committee and the Secretariat if their clinical commitment falls below the required minimum sessions at any point during the committee’s three-session term, within four weeks of this change taking effect.*
*The above requirements shall be waived where a GP is prevented from meeting them by sickness or absence on maternity / parental / adoptive leave or other exceptional circumstances approved by the returning officer or their nominated deputy. This exemption applies for a period of no more than twelve months, and in order to be eligible for committee membership, the GP must have met the requirement for the six months prior to the sickness / maternity / parental / adoptive leave period. The GP must have a reasonable expectation of returning to clinical practice and meeting the requirements and intend to do so.
- Retainer scheme GPs can stand regardless of their time commitment
- Candidates will be required to confirm the regional constituency or devolved nation in which their BMA registered address is, at the time of nomination for the election.
- Alternatively, the sessional GP may choose, with relevant evidence, which constituency to align with based on their working patterns (e.g. where a member provides their GP clinical services, or where they have spent the majority of their working time over the previous six months or, if they have recently begun employment in another region, the region in which they will spend the majority of their working time over the next six months).
TO VOTE IN THIS ELECTION:
GPs may vote in the Sessional GP Committee election provided they meet one of the following criteria:
A. They are a salaried or freelance/locum GPs whose, for the six months before election, NHS general practice performer's work has been solely as a salaried and / or freelance GP (excluding work as a GP appraiser) or a GP trainee and have undertaken an average of at least seven hours per week of NHS general practice work for that period.
B. They are a retainer scheme GP.
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