A motion to move away from the model of funding based on patient list size was voted down by LMC leaders in York today.
The motion called for the introduction of a payment-by-results system, which would pay GPs based on the amount of work they undertake rather than the size of their patient list, but a large majority voted it down.
Dr Jim Kelly from Kent LMC, proposing the motion, said that the current contract was to blame for the current workforce crisis.
He said: ‘This motion forces politicians to accept responsibility for ratcheting up demand. If they promise 48-hour access, they will have to pay for it. At the moment, there is a disconnect between what we get paid, and [what] they promise. They can promise the earth, because it comes back to us. If they promise something they bloody well have to pay for it.’
Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the GPC, had argued against the motion.
He said: ‘There is no new money, so we will be carving up the existing resources. A payment-by-results system will not deliver what you want to do.
He added: ‘We need more resources to make the core contract work in the way it was intended’.
Motion 50 in full – all parts lost
KENT That conference believes the capitation funding formula for GP services is unfit for purpose and calls upon the GPC to negotiate a Payment by Results based contract because the current system:
(i) fails to resource actual workload
(ii) fails to recognise the ever increasing demand for access, and complex care
(iii) fails to incentivise practices to invest
(iv) exacerbates the current inequity in NHS resources between secondary and primary care
(v) is the biggest single reason for the current recruitment crises.
