New collective action for practices in June
From 1 June, we are urging GP partnerships and practices across England to take part in a further collective action, in the face of the Government’s continued intransigence. We’re thankful to every practice that has taken part in collective action around data sharing agreements during May to stay safe and sustainable in the face of the 2026/27 imposed GP contract. We sincerely hoped that an escalation in action could be averted but unfortunately, the Government remains unwilling to agree to the mitigations the profession needs.
This is why we are asking you to start a new action alongside the ongoing action on DSAs (practice data sharing agreements) that we launched last month. During June, we are asking practices to remove or ignore any non-contractual medicines optimisation software and amend your choices of acute prescription, which may fall outside the remit of the ICB formulary. This may include, for example, issuing a branded or liquid formulation that may still be a perfectly acceptable and justifiable choice for the care of the patient in front of you in the consultation.
Taking part in this action is lawful. We know some of you may have this software added onto your system or prescribing incentives as part of a locally commissioned service, and your LMC may be able to advise you as to the position in your local area. See our Focus On guidance below too.
We recognise that many of you may have kept medicine optimisation software switched off since it was part of the 2024 collective action so focus on your acute prescribing choices.
Ensure safe prescribing decisions are determined by you, rather than driven by the financial imperatives of the DHSC which is refusing to amend the undeliverable imposed 2026/27 GMS contract.
Prescribe whatever may be in the best interests of your patient in line with GMC guidance. Your patients will see minimal impact and will receive a prescription appropriate for their clinical presentation. The impacts on ICB prescribing budgets will be dwarfed by Acute Trust overspend, which is perpetually ‘written off’ by Government.
Read our Focus on guidance onSwitching off medicines optimisation software
Access our resources to help you understand the need to take part in this collective action
May 2026 GP collective action – Next Steps on Data Sharing
Central to the ongoing collective action for May remains the request that practices send a template letter to their local system to assess each existing DSA the practice is currently signed up to, while indicating you will examine voluntary secondary use data sharing agreements (DSAs) from May 2026.
With many practices now having received responses from their ICB, GPC England has drafted a second template for practices to use where they have received a stock response from their ICB – this response will contain an early paragraph starting ‘As you note’ and a header ‘The limited ICB role.’
Given the range of responses we know practices will have received, it is not possible to generate a template that works universally, however the document that we have produced should speak to the fullest range of replies. Practices should carefully consider each part and determine whether or not to include it in any response they provide to their ICB. The template can be found here. Please get this sent off when you receive a response.
Access our resources to help you understand the need to take part in this collective action
Taking part in this action does not breach your contract and will help practices to stay safe and put pressure on the Government to secure safeguards for practices.
Read about the 26/27 contract changes and our dispute with Government
Any questions, please dont hesitate to contact the LMC office.
Collective Action: May Update
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.