GPs currently get 31p per patient per day to cover essential patient care. For the 2025/26 financial year, the General Practitioners Committee in England (GPCE) is asking for that figure to rise by 11p, to 42p per day.
Annually, this would mean going from £112.50 per patient to £152.50 – an extra £40 per patient per year.
To end the dispute, GPCE says practices need both this investment to stop the collapse of GP practices, as well as a commitment from the Government to agree and implement a new, national GP contract within this Parliament.
Earlier this year, GPs voted in favour of taking collective action following a third, successive imposition of changes to the national GP contract that most practices in England work to.
Despite repeated warnings around the scale of struggling practices, GPs were forced to start working to these changes earlier this year. Of those who took part in July's indicative ballot, more than 98% voted in favour of taking collective action from 1st August.
The call is part of a ‘general practice vision' document launched today by GPCE, which offers practical solutions to put patients first and improve their care by rebuilding general practice.
The vision – called Patients First: Why general practice is broken and how we can fix it – explains how practices can be supported to meet growing patient need and provide the level of service their communities deserve.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of GPC England at the BMA, said: ‘An extra 11p per patient, per day – that's £40 a year for each patient – to secure more GPs, more practice nurses and more appointments would help stabilise our profession and prevent the loss of any more vital local GP surgeries. Doing this would be a significant first step towards us being able to call off collective action.
‘Our Patients First document offers solutions to help the new Government deliver exactly what their election manifesto promised: to bring back the family doctor. To make that a reality, we need resources put into general practice, so that surgeries can stay open and employ the doctors, nurses, and other staff they need to deliver more appointments and timely continuity of care.'
