Bulletin 17.02.2026

Dear All General Practitioners
All Practice Managers

Please share this bulletin with locum GPs and other GP colleagues who may not receive it directly.

Practice Management Association (PMA)

Please find attached PMA’s latest newsletter for February 2026. It includes information on upcoming events for 2026, as well as details on how to register for “Meet Your Practice Manager Reps” session on 11 March 2026.

BMA Communication: Power in numbers: Uniting Sessional GPs for Change

Our aim is to support a working environment where work is available, safe, fairly paid, and where sessional GPs have a strong and valued voice.

We hope you found the update from the Member Relations team useful and reassuring, particularly in seeing how issues raised previously have been addressed.

During the event, we were able to answer a number of questions on sessional GP pay erosion, unsafe workloads and contracts not being honoured.. However, due to the high volume of pre-submitted questions, we weren’t able to cover everything on the day. To ensure you have the information you need, we have prepared the attached resource, which provides additional answers to your submitted questions.

We would like to highlight one particularly pertinent area at this time though: job planning.
The Sessional Committee’s position is clear:
Job planning is a contractual requirement for both GMS and PMS practices. The Model Salaried GP Contract states that a full-time salaried GP works 37.5 hours per week; however, it allows for less-than-full-time working or additional hours, with the precise arrangements to be agreed through negotiation between the salaried GP and the employer.

Crucially, the contract also requires that a job plan must be mutually agreed between employer and employee (and appended to the contract), and changes should not be made to the job plan without consent of salaried GP. They should be reviewed annually, or at any time during the year if there are significant changes to the salaried GPs working pattern.

We would therefore encourage practices and salaried GPs to review their current arrangements and ensure that an up-to-date job plan is formally documented. We have useful guidance on job plan considerations and a downloadable template which members may find helpful when developing or reviewing job plans.
What you can do now:

1. Report your issues
If you are a BMA member, for individual issues on pay or contracts. Please first contact the BMA for personalised member relations advice, e.g. contract checking.
Report an issue, emerging theme, idea or problem to the Sessional GP Committee by emailing us at sessionalgps@bma.org.uk if you are experiencing:
Missing DDRB uplift
Unfair contract terms
Pay range problems
Unsafe workload conditions
Any other concerns
We can’t fix what we don’t know about. Your reports help us build the evidence needed for collective action.

2. Connect locally
Strong communication between sessional GPs and Local Medical Committees (LMCs) is more important than ever. Find your nearest network here.

3. Bring your colleagues
Please feel free to forward this email. The larger our network, the stronger our collective voice.

4. Join the BMA (if you’re not already a member)
The BMA campaigns for fair terms and conditions for working doctors and medical students. Membership gives you access to expert employment advisers, as well as contract, rota and pension support.
Join the BMA

5. Update your details (if you are already a BMA member)
To make sure you don’t miss important updates, opportunities and events relevant to sessional GPs, please ensure your contact details and communication preferences are up to date.

Click here to check and update your details.
It only takes a minute and helps us stay connected with you on the issues that matter most.

What’s next

Please look out for future communications, updates and events from the Sessional GP Committee.
We want to hear from you

What would make these events more useful? What topics should we cover next time? If you have not already done so, please share your thoughts using this short feedback form.

In solidarity,
Dr Kim Rollinson and Dr Amy Small
Co-Chairs, BMA Sessional GPs Committee

Invitation to The Sandy Macara Memorial Lecture

The BMA North East Regional Council are hosting the Sandy Macara Memorial Lecture on Thursday 26th February, 18:30 – 20:30 – online and in person at Newcastle University – Lecture Theatre 1.02, Henry Daysh Building.

Attendance is free, and the invitation is open to all – we have attendees from policy makers (MPs, peers, councillors), healthcare professionals and students, and members of the public. Invitations have been shared with the 6 Universities in the North East and Cumbria. The lecture has CPD credits from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

Speakers
The guest lecture will be delivered by Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health in Gateshead and Newcastle and a Vice-President of the Association of Director’s Public Health.

We will also have presentations from Dr. Tom Dolphin (Chair, BMA Council), Deiniol Jones (Public health conference chair), Dr. Samuel Parker (Chair, North East Regional Council), and Sue Gallagher (Patient Liaison Representative). Professor Sir Ian Gilmore (Past President BMA) will provide reflections and summing up. There will be the opportunity for Q&A’s to the panel. Hot food will be served from 8:30

Link for registration https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/621d66b6-6b75-4850-8fa9-f1d59bc62a63@bf448ebe-e65f-40e6-9e31-33fdaa412880

Agenda
6 pm – Tea and coffee
6.30 pm – Introductory talks by BMA officers
7 pm – Lecture by Alice Wiseman with reflections by patient representative, Sue Gallagher
8 pm – Q+A and summing up by Professor Sir Ian Gilmore
8.30 pm – Reception with hot food

Background
The North East has some of the worst health inequalities in the UK and continues to fall behind. The BMA North East Regional Council has agreed a core mission to support and promote work regionally to tackle this issue. Action is needed across all sectors and levels with a particular need to influence the building blocks of health, like income, education and housing. The BMA North East Regional Council have therefore teamed up with the BMA’s Public Health Committee to host an event on health inequalities and public health, with a focus on the North East and how everyone can play their part.

The keynote lecture will be delivered by Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health in Gateshead and Newcastle and a Vice-President of the Association of Director’s Public Health. The event is hybrid with attendance either virtually by Teams or in-person at Newcastle University in the Henry Daysh building.

We are keen to use the session as an incubator for further collaboration and cross disciplinary working so we welcome, county, town and parish councillors, MPs, GPs, hospital doctors, medical students and others to come along and become inspired by our fantastic speakers. Anyone who wants to make a difference to public health is welcome. We are also welcoming public health specialists and BMA members from across the UK for their insights.

The keynote lecture is held each year in honour of Sir Sandy Macara by the BMA public health committee. Sir Sandy was a leading public health figure who chaired the BMA’s representative body and then its council from 1993-98. The lecture was established to remember ‘an absolutely extraordinary person’, his commitment to public health and his efforts to get the wider medical community involved in public health. It rotates location each year with recent lectures in Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.