The GPC’s progress report on the £2.4bn GP Forward View rescue package one year on says implementation has been ‘patchy’.
The GPC especially highlights the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF) for practice premises and IT infrastructure as a problem area.
Its progress report said that ‘although funding has now been secured in many areas GPC are concerned with the delay in the provision of this funding, leading to slow progress of the delivery of projects in some areas’. It added that the GPC ‘has raised this with NHS England’.
As previously revealed by Pulse, just 5% of the flagship scheme has actually been spent on GP premises.
The report also said GPC has ‘grave concerns that progress is not sufficient enough for 2020/21 workforce targets to be achieved’, with the comments coming as Pulse’s GP Forward View progress update last month revealed promised swathes of support staff were failing to come through at pace.
GPC chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said it was ‘vital NHS England is held to account to deliver its promises and funding commitments, and do so in a way that translates into real support for GP practices’.
He said: ‘Our analysis of the first year of the GP Forward View highlights that whilst there has been some delivery, there have been cases where promised funding has been severely delayed or distributed unevenly across the country.
‘This confusing and inadequate implementation is unacceptable given the huge pressures on general practice from a combination of factors, including rising patient demand, falling resources and staff shortages.’
Dr Nagpaul said this comes as ‘many GP practices are at breaking point and they need certainty that they will get the resources necessary to deliver safe, effective care to their patients’.
‘We will continue to work with grassroots GPs to provide LMCs and practices with resources to hold NHS managers to account, which has included launching new guidance recently on how to ensure work is not unnecessarily transferred from secondary care.
‘Most importantly, we expect politicians of all parties to put forward positive, well-resourced proposals that will not duck the crisis facing the NHS and general practice in the upcoming general election campaign,’ he added.
Read the full GPC progress report here
