Paperwork binned and core funding boosted under new GP contract deal
The GPC and NHS England have negotiated a 'significant' new contract that delivers a number of benefits for practices, including a scrapping of the unplanned admissions DES and paying CQC fees in full for the first time ever.
Other benefits include significant improvements to sickness and maternity absence cover arrangement, and increased funding for the disability learning DES.
There will also be extra funding to cover increases in indemnity costs and the additional work caused by the new system for transferring patient records run by Capita.
However, in return, practices that regularly close for mornings or afternoons on a week day will lose their eligibility for the current extended hours scheme, while practices will also have to identify whether patients have a right to free NHS care when registering.
A statement from the BMA highlights that the parties have agreed to:
- Direct reimbursement of practices’ CQC registration fees to prevent reductions in GP practice resources.
- £30m to cover increases in indemnity costs.
- An uplift to cover increasing practice expenses and to deliver 1% pay uplift.
- Ending the unplanned admissions DES, which will see £156.7 million added to the global sum instead. This DES will be replaced with a new focus on those patients who are identified as living with severe frailty to ensure this vulnerable group receive appropriate care, ending box ticking and a complicated reporting system.
- Increased funding for the learning disability enhanced service, to resource the extra work needed to care for these vulnerable patients.
- Providing significant improvements to sickness and maternity absence cover arrangements.
- Funding to cover the additional work caused by the new system for transferring patient records run by Capita.
- Introduction of a system based on self-declaration to identify patients who hold a non-UK issued EHIC or S1 form1 when registering with a practice. This will enable funding to be claimed back from the country of origin of an overseas patient who receives care, with no upfront charge to the patient. An extra £5m will be added to the contract on a recurrent basis to support any workload implications.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, GPC chair, said: 'I am pleased to say we have reached an agreement which we believe offers important and significant improvements to the contract.
'The changes will provide some much needed stability and respite for GP practices by reducing bureaucracy and providing financial relief in key areas. Progress on ending the bureaucratic unplanned admission DES is welcome as it will enable GPs to spend more time looking after frail older patients, rather than on box ticking.
'Reimbursements for CQC fees and rising costs of indemnity will protect practice resources so that they can be concentrated on frontline care for patients. Guaranteed cover for reimbursement to the sickness and maternity leave system will help practices continue to provide GP appointments when staff are unwell.'
In a statement, the DH has highlighted that 'GPs will be required to establish whether overseas visitors are eligible for free care and to open at times more convenient for patients'.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: 'GPs are the first port of call for most people entering the NHS and are often a gateway to other health services.
'We’ve made it clear that overseas visitors are welcome to use our NHS – but only if they make a fair and proportionate contribution to it, just as the British taxpayer does.
'These changes are about making sure the primary care system plays a full and proper role in ensuring any appropriate costs are identified and recovered.'
Readers' comments (20)
Annonymous | Locum GP07 Feb 2017 12:55pm
Would Locum get increased reimbursement for defence fee or does it goes to practice income? Same as pension changes before?
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Andrew Green | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 1:53pm
Locums should add an amount to their invoices to cover this, partners should amend their contracts with salaried GPs to make sure that they are treated fairly. Your LMC will be pleased to help make sure that this happens.
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Unscepted | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 2:17pm
GPC is so trusting. Hat's off my dears.
We'll see when the Contract comes in. Let's remember that feeding a snake, doesn't make it lose it's venom - you are trusting NHSE, not just any organization. One burnt GPC will end up getting burnt a couple of times because it keeps hailing every little inch gained as a mile of success.
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Unscepted | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 2:22pm
BTW, we are gearing up for a further reduction in weighted list size by 200 next year it seems - they have to take out the money from somewhere:)Not that our list size has fallen - just try to prove that it's not right - you can't because if the fraud is at government level - no law maker or Fraud organisation is going to even bother to look at it. Your 1 patient less can be equal to a drop in 30 weighted patients. This is the normality and reality of the corrupt face of NHS.
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Rashpal Singh | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 2:25pm
Some positive changes.
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DrDr | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 2:43pm
Hmmm what about UK nationals not registered in UK? Not entitled to nhs care so.....
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semiretired | Locum GP07 Feb 2017 3:01pm
i welcome cqc fee fully reimbursed. pointless DES has gone. thank god. £140 for health check seems reasonable. indemnity is still a big problem,. not sure how far 30 million will stretch. good to see sick leave cover. i had to go back to work on crutches in past.
i think bma has done a good job .
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policenthieves | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 4:01pm
A little bit of blue sky and an occasional sunbeam so lets all be positive just for one day
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Really? | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 4:42pm
I see little to get excited about. Yes small additional sums of money are good but no big impact on GP workload or workforce unless you are sick or pregnant. The removal of AUA Des is replaced with more data collection and reception staff will be busier.
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NI gp | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 6:18pm
Let's see similar ideas for Northern Ireland, I am not holding my breath however,
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pipin singh | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 8:14pm
some of this sounds good right now. lets see how it pans out
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Fred Madden | GP Partner/Principal07 Feb 2017 9:09pm
£30 million won't cover the increases in indemnity fees that have been happening so I hope everyone is realistic in how much extra this will actually mean.
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watchdoc | GP Partner/Principal08 Feb 2017 10:03am
some small positive changes (thankyou) but no great solutions eg. abolish QOF, crown indemnity. Just do it.
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Peej | GP Partner/Principal08 Feb 2017 10:36am
The wording says "extra funding to cover increases in indemnity costs". I would be keen to see exactly what this means in detail, the key words being increases in costs. I see no mention of crown indemnity or whole cost of indemnity being covered
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Dr MSC | GP Partner/Principal08 Feb 2017 12:32pm
thank god we are stopping extended hours! Unplanned admissions DES was not really working - just more tick box medicine (KPI). They really just need to remove QOF and have a new funding formula based on capitation and also a top up based on number of patients actually seen.
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Dr Sam Izdat | GP Partner/Principal08 Feb 2017 2:37pm
Could they please publish the true inflation rate alongside this contract. 1% increase with 2.5% inflation (fall of pound brexit etc ) will not help.
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Dr Sam Izdat | GP Partner/Principal08 Feb 2017 2:50pm
RPI Dec 2016 = 2.5%
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copernicus | GP Partner/Principal09 Feb 2017 10:58pm
61,000 GPs licensed on GMC register
30 million pounds
£490 each before tax and pension (£205 net)
doesn't cover the exponential rise in indemnity fees even for daytime work, let alone OOH
Needs to be at least £100M
GPC schoolboy maths. Bend over
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Stelvio | Locum GP14 Feb 2017 9:45pm
Pitiful, utterly trivial tinkering. GPC should resign.
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7dayworker | GP Partner/Principal21 Feb 2017 9:21am
You can't cut paperwork in such a crumbling organisation as all this monitoring will continue
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