GP practices will not be asked to pay back seniority payments they received in error before 2016/17, Primary Care Support England (PCSE) has confirmed.
NHS England and PCSE have been undertaking a ‘reconciliation exercise’ for seniority payments, to claim back £28m the commissioner has ‘overpaid’ GPs over the years, with some practices facing potentially large bills as a result.
But the adjustments may relate to GP partners who have now retired, left the practice, or are deceased, or to practices that have now closed or merged, which the BMA warned could complicate matters.
Last year, around 1,500 GP practices were due a pay deduction in June as PCSE sought to reclaim the payments for NHSE, with more repayments for the 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 and 2016/17 financial years being considered.
Now the BMA’s GP Committee said they ‘finally received assurances’ from PCSE that it will not seek to undertake a reconciliation exercise for years between 2013 and 2016.
However, some practices could still receive requests from PCSE relating to 2017 onwards, according to the union.
PCSE has confirmed to Pulse that ‘it has not received instruction’ to undertake reconciliation activity for 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16.
In an update to GPs last week, the GPC said: ‘After many months of discussions, we have now finally received assurances from PCSE that it will not seek to undertake a reconciliation exercise for the financial years 2013/14, 2014/15 or 2015/16.’
NHS England said that there may be additional adjustments made to ‘a small number of practices’ as further data is validated for 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. Pulse has asked NHSE how many practices will be affected by this.
It said that it has taken steps to ‘minimise’ the financial impact on practices with overall negative adjustments.
In guidance to practices, the commissioner said: ‘If you feel the overall deduction, due to be processed in August, will place your practice at risk of financial hardship, please submit a request for a repayment plan to PCSE by Friday 20 June 2025.’
The request will then be forwarded to the relevant ICB ‘for review’.
The guidance added: ‘If agreed by the ICB, PCSE will set up a repayment plan for the remaining eight months of the 2025/26 financial year (August 2025 to March 2026). The overall negative adjustment figure will be divided into eight equal parts.
‘Where an ICB informs PCSE that a repayment plan is not applicable, PCSE will confirm this to the practice by 4 July 2025. If necessary, the practice can discuss the matter directly with their ICB.’
Seniority payments were made to principal GPs in recognition of their years of NHS reckonable service. The scheme closed to new applicants on the 1 April 2014 and the last payments were made at the end of March 2020.
