GPs urged to check if they have received new patient funding amid ‘PCSE issue’

GP practices in Cornwall experienced delays in receiving additional funding for newly registered patients, due to a Primary Care Support England (PCSE) issue, the LMC has said.

All GP practices receive an additional 46% of global sum funding for new patients in their first year of registration, but the LMC in Cornwall said that ‘a PCSE issue’ meant that practices did not receive it on time.

PCSE, which handles back-office functions for GPs such as administration of pensions and transfer of medical records, has been supplied by the company Capita since 2015. 

However, Capita told Pulse that while PCSE manages payments for new patient registrations in GP practices, they could not confirm how many practices had been affected by this as they were not aware of the issue.

A Capita spokesperson told Pulse: ‘PCSE manages payments for new patient registrations in GP practices. This includes processing payments for new patient registrations and ensuring accurate and timely payments to GP practices.

‘While we have not been made aware of any current issues, we would thoroughly investigate any queries of this nature that were raised with us.’

In an update to practices, Kernow LMC said that the issue seems now to have been resolved but that practices should still get in touch if new problems around this arise.

It said: ‘An issue highlighted by the LMC where local GP practices had not received the 46% premium on top of the Global Sum for the first 12 months that a new patient is registered with them has now been resolved.

‘The Integrated Care Board’s understanding is that increases in the registered patient list sizes are recognised through the new patient premium with payments to GP practices adjusted on a quarterly basis.

‘There was a PCSE issue with this at one stage, but it has been resolved, so GP practices should automatically be recompensed for increases in their list sizes.’

Cornwall ICB declined to comment and told Pulse it was not the ICB’s place to respond to this matter. 

It comes after Capita was handed an extension to its contract this month, meaning it will continue to run PCSE for another three years.

GPs have experienced numerous problems with Capita’s performance, such as delays with the processing of their pensions at the start of retirement, a data breach caused by a cyber-attack, and reports of ‘missing’ GP pension records.

A major Pulse investigation in 2022 revealed the scale of issues faced by GPs because of Capita’s poor administration.

Earlier this year, Pulse revealed that PCSE ‘mistakenly classified’ practices in Tower Hamlets as ‘independent providers’, rendering them ineligible for NHS Pension.