We are summing up the main changes to the GP contract announced by NHS England today.
An overall increase in investment of £259m taking overall contract investment to £1,186m – a 2.23% increase. This incorporates a 2% pay increase for GPs and staff, which may change based on the DDRB’s recommendations.
Thirty-two of the 76 QOF indicators will be income protected, which account for 212 of the 635 points that can be earned through the scheme. However, many of these relate to disease register indicators, which are minimal work.
‘Enhanced nurses’ will be included in the ARRS and PCNs ‘given more more flexibility by removing all caps on all other direct patient care roles’ – although it remains unclear what ‘enhanced nurses’ are.
All unspent money from the ARRS will be taken away from PCNs.
The Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) indicators for PCNs will be reduced from five to two – retaining those on learning disabilities and FIT testing. The funding for the other three indicators, on flu and access, will now be incorporated into the the Capacity and Access Payment (CAP), which will increase by £46m to £292m.
The eight PCN services specifications will all be replaced by one ‘simple overarching specification with a greater outcomes-focus’.
The Weight Management Enhanced Service will continue in 2024/25. Practices will receive £11.50 per referral with total funding of £7.2m for the Enhanced Service.
QOF aspiration payments will be raised from 70% to 80%.
Practices will be required to provide data on eight metrics through a national data extraction, for use by PCN Clinical Directors, ICBs and NHS England: call volumes; calls abandoned; call times to answer; missed call volumes; wait time before call abandoned; call backs requested; call backs made; average call length time
