As you will be aware the result of the GPC ballot was that 98.9% of GPs rejected the imposed contract for 2026/27. The GPC met last Thursday and resolved to ask all practices to join in new collective action.
The first action the GPC is advising is for practices to withdraw from any Data Sharing that is not a contractual, legal or professional requirement. All the GPC and your LMC is asking for you to do at this stage is to send the letter which has been drafted and agreed by the BMA legal department which is available here.
Some GPs have been questioning whether this action is likely to have any effect. It will have minimal or no impact on practices and patients, but could be a major lever in getting the DHSC and NHS England to change their minds about the 26/27 imposed contract. It comes at a time when public confidence is yet again being undermined in NHS and government IT and patient data due to the Palantir debacle. If you have not been following this please consider watching this summary: (7) Facebook or a fuller Westminster Hall debate In the House of Commons: NHS FDP Season Finale: UK Parliament vs Palantir – it’s the last days of Isengard.
However, we would like to remind you that at the request of the LMC, LLR practices took action regarding shared record access within SystmOne with significant and almost immediate effect.
Over several years, the LMC repeatedly raised concerns regarding a significant patient safety and medico-legal risk arising from external providers, principally Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), being able to write directly into GP records without reliably alerting practices to new information. This created an unacceptable risk whereby clinically relevant communications and requests for GP action could remain undiscovered within the record.
Despite repeated escalation, software prompts, and attempted technical fixes, the issue remained unresolved.
At that stage, the LMC advised practices to withdraw LPT write access to GP units within SystmOne in order to mitigate the immediate risk to patients and practices. Although both LPT and the ICB applied pressure on practices not to disable sharing, practices acted with confidence in the LMC’s advice and proceeded accordingly.
Within days, LPT identified and implemented an effective solution, successfully resolving a longstanding safety issue which had remained unresolved for at least 8 years.
This example demonstrates the effectiveness of coordinated action when practices act collectively in response to clear operational and contractual risks. We would therefore encourage all practices to engage with the current collective action measures and implement LMC advice where appropriate.
In summary the only request of practices for the current collective action is to send the attached email to the ICB CCIO as addressed.