Helen Salisbury writes about yet another imposed contract on general practitioners (GPs) in England. Annual contract changes have traditionally been the result of negotiations between the government and the BMA's GP England committee. However, in four of the last five years, no agreement was reached and the contract was unilaterally imposed by the government. A contract agreed last year brought hope, but the promised guarantees of online access did not materialize. This year the government withdrew from negotiations altogether, instead consulting for six weeks with a wider range of stakeholders and holding just one meeting with GP representatives at the BMA. The resulting deposited contract has some positive features. One of the problems is the unemployment of qualified general practitioners despite the need for more doctors in practice. The contract solves this problem in two ways.