The Government is willing to make changes to incentives schemes in the English GP contract, the BMA has revealed following talks with the primary care minister.
BMA GP Committee negotiators met with Neil O’Brien MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state for primary care and public health, with the BMA saying there was ‘willingness to change QOF, ARRS and IIF where possible,’ to bring in faster changes.
A GPC newsletter also said that the upcoming recovery plan for general practice will address the ‘primary-secondary care interface’, which may mean renewed efforts to tackle workload dump on practices from trusts.
The ‘constructive’ talks follow the BMA’s rejection of a contract offer from NHS England, which proposed linking more funding to access measures and mandating practices to offer automated access to patient records by 31 July.
Dr David Wrigley, GPC England deputy chair, said: ‘Mr O’Brien thanked us for the constructive approach to contract discussions and commented on how hard GPs are working, and sought to focus on unnecessary bureaucracy and what changes could be made to QOF.
‘We raised the issue of the unsustainable pressures practices are under and the lack of investment, with the system working beyond capacity and the fact that every GP lost results in, on average, over 2,200 patients needing to be distributed to other already overburdened GPs.’
He also said that the issue of QOF was raised during the talks, particularly the impact of the end-of-year focus on unnecessary ‘box ticking’ and stated that less prescriptive quality improvement style approaches would be better, to ensure an improved experience for patients with GPs able to focus on the right aspects of their care.
Mr O’Brien also told negotiators that within the Government’s forthcoming general practice and primary care recovery plan, the primary-secondary care interface is receiving ‘particular attention,’ and acknowledged that ‘there is more to do’ on GP appointments, in terms of getting accurate data as the belief is GPs ‘are doing more than national statistics currently show.’
Dr Wrigley said: ‘We stressed that stability is urgently needed for the next 12 months but the profession does not feel supported by the Government at present and there is the perception that secondary care gets all the additional resources and focus, and the hugely negative impact this is having on GP practice workload.’
The GPC told Mr O’Brien that the current intended core practice contract funding uplift is ‘insufficient’ to help cover the cost of practice expenses.
Dr Wrigley added: ‘We strongly urged the Government to identify additional financial support for 2023/24 to ensure practices are not forced to reduce their workforce and thus patient access, to cut costs or, even more worryingly, cease operating altogether.
‘If the Government and NHS England refuse to negotiate an improved offer, and a contract is imposed on practices, we would be forced to consider all options, including the potential for industrial or collective action.’
READERS' COMMENTS [3]
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THE BMA WILL SELL OUT TO THE NUTTERS IN THE GOVERNMENT WHO DESPISE BOTH PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS AND THE REST OF SOCIETY…………ALL WHILE PREYING ON SOCIETY FROM THEIR LONDON-CENTRIC OFFICES AND WRITING SHIT TO SPIN THE GOVERNMENT LINE………..
The best QOF change would be to just roll it in to the global sum.
This is the wrong approach from the BMA.
We need a much more fundamental change – tweaking QOF isn’t going to do it.