The new GP contract will ‘explicitly require’ practices to consider continuity of care when a patient makes contact.
NHS England has today announced changes to the GP contract for 2024/25, which include a 2.23% core funding uplift, worth £259m.
This morning, primary care director Dr Amanda Doyle indicated that NHS England is looking at ways to ‘recognise…the importance of practices focusing on continuity’ in future contracts.
Her letter to GP practices this afternoon has now confirmed that continuity will be required as part of the contract in the upcoming financial year, with more detailed guidance on the continuity requirements to be published ‘in the coming weeks’ .
The letter said: ‘In order to highlight the importance of continuity of care, whilst ensuring practices have flexibility to deliver services to best meet the needs of their patient population, the provisions in the GP Contract Regulations will be amended to explicitly require continuity of care to be considered when determining the appropriate response when a patient contacts their practice.’
Speaking at the NHS Confederation primary care conference today, Dr Doyle said she is ‘really conscious’ not to ‘push unrealistic expectations’ on GPs given that ‘demand outstrips capacity by as much as it does’.
The 2.2% increase to core GP funding is a 0.4 percentage point increase on the offer earlier this year, which was strongly rejected by the BMA’s GP Committee and the wider profession.
Other changes to the contract include income protection for 32 out of the 76 QOF indicators, and a £46m increase to the Capacity and Access Payment (CAP) for PCNs, taking the total figure to £292m.
The BMA will put the contract changes – which have not been agreed with the union – to a referendum from 7 March.
The GP Committee had been attempting to push for a better deal, with chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer telling the Government last night that they had 48 hours to improve the offer, otherwise ‘regrettable events’ would follow.
What about 2 session part timers?
How do you stop multiple receptionists booking patients with different paramedics, PAs, GPs, ANPs that work part time and have wildly different skill sets? Not to mention the poor reception staff that get paid peanuts, have next to no training or medical knowledge, are treated like shite by literally everyone and are expected to miracle an appointment with the right person at the right time ? Oh, and all these when all appointments are gone by 08:10! Best of luck with your continuity of care.
Exactly. 5 years of encouraging diversification of the workforce via PCNs, MDT working, etc etc and now they want continuity??
Morons! Mandating hubs for same day access, plus spending a fortune on non-doctors, plus paying pharmacists a fortune for seeing patients with minor ailments (which a GP could deal with in 5 minutes), does not produce continuity of care. More GPs with reduced list sizes would be much more efficient and actually more cost effective than these ridiculous schemes these idiots
come up with. Takes investment and workforce planning – which it seems they are incapable of.
The Grand Piss-Take continues apace.