NHS England is expecting a ‘deluge’ in applications for premises grants once the CQC has finished its inspections of all practices, its deputy medical director said today.
Speaking at Londonwide LMC’s launch of its ‘Future of General Practice in London’ document, Dr Mike Bewick told delegates that NHS England is expecting many practices to apply for grants once the 8,500 inspections are completed.
The claim comes after Pulse revealed that NHS England had put the vast majority of GP premises investment on hold while it develops a ‘consistent’ national process to evaluate bids for funding.
He told delegates: ‘The big problem, other than workforce, is going to be around estate. I suggest that by the end of CQC visits – 8,500 inspections – we will have a deluge of people asking for improvement grants.’
Dr Bewick also described the Friends and Family Test as a ‘blunt tool’, but said that lessons could be learnt from it, citing the CQC inspections as an example.
He said: ‘When Steve Field told everyone about their fridges, it made you think about your fridges. I know some of you did more than think, because fridge manufacturers saw an upsurge in their sales and contacts.’
The deputy medical director also criticised GP care of asthma patients, citing figures from the 2013 GP Patient Survey, which showed that only 13% of patients said GPs’ care of their asthma conditions was ‘excellent’.
Dr Bewick said: ‘Asthma care should really be excellent. It should be one of the very rare-to-admit category of patients. But we know across the country we have variation of that, and we should do better.’
‘Today’s not the day to debate care.data, but using that data to highlight where we could improve care would be a really good advantage for you in redesigning primary care – if we could look at areas where there is unmet need and look where we put our resources.’
