LMCs and the BMA: what support do private GPs get?

LMCs (local medical committees) are the statutory local representative bodies for NHS GPs, so they support you as a private GP only in so far as you still do NHS work in their area. If you work wholly privately, expect no individual help from your LMC, although its published guidance is still worth reading. The BMA, by contrast, represents doctors in every sector, including private general practice, and much of its private practice guidance is free to read.

What are LMCs (local medical committees)?

A local medical committee is an elected committee of GPs that represents general practice in its area to the NHS bodies that commission and manage GP services. There are LMCs throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Each one is formally recognised by its local NHS body under NHS legislation, and regulations can require that body to consult it.

In practice, LMCs:

• represent and negotiate for local NHS practices with commissioners
• advise practices and individual GPs on NHS contracts, workload and performers list issues
• offer pastoral and professional support to GPs in difficulty
• send representatives to the national LMC conferences, which help set policy for the BMA’s GPs committee (GPC)

LMCs are not part of the BMA, although they work closely with it. The BMA says LMCs work with and through the GPC, and that they are not BMA regional offices. Avon LMC, for example, describes itself as an independent, self-financing body and not a trade union, which it says is the BMA’s role.

Who LMCs represent and how they are funded

In England, section 97 of the National Health Service Act 2006 lets NHS England (the “Board” in the Act) recognise an LMC that is representative of two groups of doctors in its area:

• GPs providing primary medical services under a general medical services (GMS) contract
• other doctors performing NHS primary medical services there, such as salaried and locum GPs, who have told NHS England they want to be represented

Section 54 of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 sets out near-identical arrangements for Local Health Boards in Wales.

Funding follows the same lines. Under section 97, NHS England can deduct an amount for the LMC’s running costs from GMS contractors’ payments, and the other doctors the LMC represents pay their apportioned share. This is the statutory levy. Surrey and Sussex LMCs note that PMS and APMS practices in their area contribute too, although only the GMS contract writes it in. Most LMCs also collect a separate GPDF levy for the General Practitioners Defence Fund, which supports the GPC’s national negotiators and the LMC conferences. Wessex LMCs, for example, publishes both levies as pence-per-patient rates.

The key point for private GPs is that LMC representation is tied to NHS primary medical services. Wholly private work sits outside it.

Does the LMC support private GPs?

It depends on whether you still do NHS work.

If you combine NHS and private work

If you are on the performers list and still do NHS sessions, partnership work or locums in the area, your LMC represents you for that work. The BMA lists what LMCs can offer sessional GPs, including:

• mediation between salaried GPs and their employers
• support and advice on performers list issues
• education, career development and networking
• pastoral support if you have difficulties with NHS commissioners

Some LMCs offer a lot more. Londonwide LMCs, which serves 27 elected committees and supports more than 7,000 GPs, has a GP Support team for constituent GPs and runs a professional support network for all GPs in London. It says it generally cannot advise on employment or HR issues, though. It also says any GP on the medical performers list working in its area can stand for election to an LMC.

Your LMC can help where NHS and private work meet, such as what your NHS practice is allowed to offer privately. See restrictions on seeing private patients in NHS practices.

If you work only privately

You are outside the group an LMC exists to represent, and you will not usually pay into its levy. Some LMCs say this plainly: Northern Ireland’s LMCs represent GPs on the performers list and state that they cannot help unrepresented GPs. Don’t expect your LMC to advise on running a private service, a dispute with a private provider or CQC registration. Use the BMA and the other sources below instead.

Why LMC guidance still matters if you work privately

Even if your LMC won’t represent you, its guidance shapes how NHS practices near you respond to your patients. Many LMCs publish guidance on the interface between NHS and private care, often built on BMA GPs committee guidance. Lincolnshire LMC’s version, for example, covers private providers asking NHS practices to:

• make private referrals
• provide medical information about patients
• organise further tests
• issue prescriptions
• make onward NHS referrals

It is written to help practices reduce the workload these requests create, so expect NHS GPs to push back on routine requests to take over your tests or prescribing. Wessex LMCs’ guidance is more encouraging on referrals: it cites Department of Health guidance that a private GP’s referral for an NHS diagnostic test should be treated no differently from an NHS GP’s, and says private GPs are free to refer patients to the NHS. It also reminds practices that wholly private GPs can only issue private prescriptions. See making NHS referrals as a private GP.

Read your local LMC’s guidance before you agree shared care or monitoring with a patient’s NHS GP. It tells you what the practices around you have been advised to do, and helps you write requests they can say yes to.

LMCs in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Nation	How LMCs are recognised	Notes
England	By NHS England, under section 97 of the National Health Service Act 2006	GPC England holds an annual conference of LMC representatives
Wales	By Local Health Boards, under section 54 of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006	An LMC Wales conference is held each March
Scotland	NHS boards recognise professional committees, including the area medical committee, under section 9 of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978	LMCs work alongside the board’s area medical committee and GP sub-committee. Local arrangements vary.
Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland’s GMS regulations define the LMC as the committee recognised under Article 55 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972	Four LMCs (Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western) sit under NILMC

The UK LMC conference brings all four nations together; the 2026 conference was held in Belfast in May. You can find your nearest LMC through the BMA’s “find your local representative” page. Regulation of private GP services is a separate matter, run by a different regulator in each nation: the CQC in England, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the RQIA in Northern Ireland.

What the BMA offers private GPs

The British Medical Association is the trade union and professional association for doctors across the UK. It represents doctors in private practice as well as the NHS. What it is not is a helpdesk that will solve your specific private practice problem for you. In our experience, a detailed question about running a private GP service usually gets pointed back to the published guidance, and its events are more useful for meeting colleagues than for individual answers.

Free guidance on private practice

The BMA’s private practice section is open to everyone. Its “setting up as a private GP” page covers business models, CQC registration, patient agreements, costs, indemnity and appraisal, and warns that new CQC applications can take three months or more. Its private practice and GP contracts guidance sets out what NHS GPs and practices can offer privately.

What members get

Membership adds individual help. At the time of review the BMA lists, for GPs:

• contract checking
• employment, pay and pensions advice
• free mediation if things get difficult
• confidential 24/7 counselling and wellbeing support

The employment side is strongest if you are an employee, for example a salaried GP with a private provider. If you are self-employed, working under practising privileges or running your own company, ask the BMA before you join what help it can give on your type of contract. Subscription rates depend on your role and income, so check them on the BMA site.

Representation for private GPs

The BMA’s private practice committee represents doctors in private and consulting practice. It has two seats for members who do not provide or perform NHS primary medical services, earn 75% or more of their income from private general medical practice and do at least 20 hours a week of private practice. The committee refers to the rapidly increasing number of GPs doing private work.

The sessional GPs committee, part of the GPC, provides national representation for salaried and locum GPs. Its focus is NHS sessional work, but its guidance is useful if you combine NHS and private sessions.

Events

The private practice committee’s GP private practice conference is on Monday 7 December 2026, online and at BMA House in London. It is aimed at GPs setting up in, or moving to, private practice, with sessions on the economics of private healthcare, accounting, employment advice and CQC registration. Members and non-members can both book.

Wellbeing support for any doctor

The BMA’s 24/7 counselling and peer support service is free and confidential, and open to all doctors regardless of membership, as well as their partners and dependants. Private GPs can be more isolated than NHS colleagues, so it is worth knowing about. See how to keep in touch with your peers.

Other sources of support

• Appraisal and revalidation with no NHS connection: the IDF may suit you. See what the IDF is.
• Medico-legal questions about a patient: call your medical defence organisation first, not the BMA or your LMC.
• Local contacts: ask your LMC whether its open meetings or education events are open to GPs it doesn’t represent. Policies vary.