Patients face months of misery after GPs yesterday launched industrial action that will see some slash available appointments by half.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said more than 8,500 family doctors responded to a ballot, with 98.3 per cent in favour of action in a row about funding.

In a move that will means potential health risks for vast swathes of the population, the militant union, which also represents striking junior doctors, is threatening to bring the NHS to a ‘standstill’ with a catalogue of crippling measures deployed as a ‘slow burn’.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned the unprecedented development will ‘punish’ the public, while experts said the impact is likely to be ‘catastrophic’.

As part of the action, the BMA will encourage surgeries to choose from a list of ten actions, with practices able to choose how many they implement and when.

These include GPs limiting the number of patients they see each day to 25 and choosing to not perform work they are not formally contracted to do. Other measures include refusing to share patient data unless it is in the best interest of the patient.

Practices could also potentially ignore ‘rationing’ restrictions by ‘prescribing whatever is in the patient’s best interest’.

It is expected to be the most significant collective action by family doctors in 60 years, having been backed by two in three of the BMA’s GPs.

As many as three million GP appointments a month could disappear if all family doctors kowtow to the BMA demands to slash numbers to just 25 a day. While the daily average is 37, some doctors currently do 50.

Health leaders say this will heap additional pressure on pharmacies and A&Es, which are already buckling under pressure.

Mr Streeting said: ‘I can understand why GPs wanted to punish the previous government. But taking collective action will only punish patients.

‘I want to reset the relationship between GPs and their government.’

Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England, said: ‘Without proactive communications to patients, the work-to-rule action could exacerbate access problems or even deter people from seeking help altogether if they are unsure whether their surgery is still open to patients.’

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of BMA’s GP committee for England, said the action - which started immediately after the ballot result was announced - will be a ‘slow burn’ rather than a ‘big bang’, adding: ‘GPs are at the end of their tether. This is an act of desperation.

‘For too long, we’ve been unable to provide the care we want to. We are witnessing general practice being broken.

‘The era of the family doctor has been wiped out by recent consecutive governments and our patients are suffering as a result.’

Earlier this week, she said the action could bring the health service to a ‘standstill very quickly’ but said the action was aimed at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

It has been designed to be ‘easy, sustainable and effective’ because it could last ‘week on week on week, month on month on month’, Dr Bramall-Stainer added.

The BMA said the new GP contract, which will see services given a 1.9 per cent funding increase for 2024/25, means many surgeries will struggle to stay financially viable.

But patients’ groups branded the plans ‘selfish’ and said GPs risk losing the support of the public.

GP partners, who own their practices and account for the majority of family doctors, earn an average of £153,400 a year - despite only one in three working full-time.

Furthermore, official figures from NHS Digital show GP partners have seen their earnings - taken from practice profits - increase by 31 per cent in recent years.

NHS England said the collective action will last an ‘indefinite’ period of time but practices are still required to open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

Health chiefs recommend patients use 111 for urgent medical help when their GP practice is unavailable and if it is a serious or life-threatening emergency to call 999.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs said: ‘There are many aspects of what GPs provide that go well beyond the contractual requirements they are under, and this additional workload and the goodwill of the GPs delivering it, have been taken for granted for too long.’