GPs threaten strike over new online NHS system
The British Medical Association (BMA) has given Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting 48 hours to avoid entering into a dispute over the introduction of new online NHS systems.
From Wednesday, 1 October 2025, patients will be able to make unlimited urgent and non-urgent online consultation requests from 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, despite no additional workforce to manage the predicted increased volume in activity, the trade union said.
“Online systems currently cannot distinguish between non-urgent and urgent patient queries and with practices already understaffed and overworked, GPs fear this could lead to potentially serious and life-threatening problems being delayed or missed entirely.
“Doctors will need to be reallocated away from booked appointments to manage the potential online triage tsunami leading to fewer GP appointments with patients.”
The BMA said that GPs are worried that, without any increase in practice capacity, considerable amounts of practice time will be diverted to reviewing the barrage of online requests and queries, thus reducing time for routine appointments and planned patient care.
“At a time when the government wants to bring back the family doctor, this change is likely to take GP appointments away from patients and damage continuity of care,” it warned.
Doctors agreed to these changes on the condition that ‘necessary safeguards’ would be put in place before Wednesday, 1st October, said BMA GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall.
“This was agreed – in writing – with Government, DHSC, and NHSE in February this year. Now, almost eight months later, it is deeply disappointing to see promises broken.
“We have worked incredibly hard to rebuild the trust between our exhausted profession and the government, but now what are England’s GPs and practice teams supposed to think?”
“The Secretary of State knows that when these changes come into effect it will likely lead to the creation of hospital-style waiting lists in general practice, reduce face-to-face GP appointments – as we’ll be triaging a barrage of online requests, consequently putting patients at risk of harm as we try to find the urgent cases among the huge pile of unmet patient need that’s out there,” she said.
