Global sum to increase by £3.82 per patient in England

The global sum will increase by £3.82 per patient – a 4% increase – in England, the BMA’s GP Committee has announced.

Under the agreement for the 2021/22 GP contract, the value of a QOF point will increase by £6.33 (3.3%) to £201.16.

There will also be an increase of 14p per patient (3%) to the out of hours adjustment, to £4.59.

The announcement was tweeted out by Dr Krishna Kasaraneni, a GPC negotiator, and an email is being sent out to GPs imminently.

This increase to the global sum is the same as last year’s in percentage terms, but this is the first increase that doesn’t take into account the phasing out of MPIG and seniority pay.

Changes to the contract were announced last month, with NHS England and the GPC agreeing that ‘now is not the time’ for major changes to the contract.

However, there will some planned amendments, which will go ahead from April including enabling primary care networks to hire mental health workers through the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) –with the further announcement 50% of the cost will be paid by community mental health trusts.

Also, more cash will be available through the ARRS as planned, with the total budget rising from £430m in 2020/21 to £746m in 2021/22.

The other main change to the ARRS will see an increase in the level of reimbursement for individual roles for PCNs in London, although their budget allocations will not be increased to reflect this change.