Financial and practice news

LMC leaders today voted that any extension of GP training should be ‘fully funded’ and include more time doing out-of-hours work.

GPs have heaped pressure on the GMC by voting unanimously that revalidation must not go ahead without adequate arrangements for remediation that fully cover all types of GPs.

LMCs have called for the rollout of the Government’s 111 out-of-hours urgent care line to be delayed, as the plans compromise patient safety and pile additional work on GPs.

LMC leaders have narrowly backed moves for disengagement from clinical commissioning to be included in any industrial action on the Government's pensions reforms.

Exclusive GPs who take industrial action over pensions should be prepared to have their pay docked by primary care organisations, and could risk contractual action or even contract termination, BMA chair Dr Hamish Meldrum has warned.

Exclusive The number of cases sent to the GMC rose sharply last year, with the GPC warning NHS managers were adopting a ‘lower threshold’ for referral because they lacked the resources to deal with problems locally.

GPs have demanded that practices must not incur any expense from CQC registration, in a vote at the annual LMCs Conference this morning.

GPs appear to be hardening in their support for industrial action, although not all of those who vote for it will join the proposed day of action themselves, a Pulse survey reveals.

LMC leaders have called on the GPC to pave the way for a vast expansion in the private services that GPs are allowed to provide to their patients, by renegotiating the GMC contract to allow practices to charge for treatment not funded by the NHS.

GPs have registered their anger at the GMC's policy of offering private medical insurance to its staff, as the regulator pledged to press ahead with revalidation.

NHS managers kept GPs and patients in the dark for at least a month after concerns were raised that hundreds of people referred to hospital with suspected cancer might have missed investigation or treatment.

LMC leaders have warned that patient safety is being compromised by a rising tide of work from secondary care and poor communication from trusts.

GPs' efforts to navigate an NHS heading towards 'financial and operational meltdown' are being hampered by 'regulation, bullying micromanagement and dissipated effort', GPC chair Dr Laurence Buckman has warned.

Read all the reaction on the plans laid out by the DH in their IT strategy published today.

Exclusive Ministers plan to boost the number of GP trainees by 20% over the next three years as part of a radical reshaping of the medical workforce, Pulse can reveal.

GPs will have to arrange online appointment booking and a secure email system for patients to contact their practice by 2015, in a move to make the NHS more ‘customer friendly’ the health secretary promised today.

NHS managers are drawing up contingency plans for a mass exodus of single-handed GPs because of the introduction of revalidation.

Thousands of GP practices across the country face clawbacks of up to £800 on payments made last year because of a QOF calculation error dating back to 2010, as managers try to recoup overpayments.

The head of the NHS Commissioning Board Professor Malcolm Grant has said his comment earlier this week about GPs being ‘out playing golf’ was intended to be ‘light-hearted and humorous’.

Exclusive Ministers are looking at the cost-effectiveness of including routine rotavirus vaccinations in the infant immunisation schedule to reduce the incidence of serious cases of gastroenteritis, Pulse has learned.