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Dr Harry Yoxall has made his mark on general practice this year by negotiating a deal locally that rocked the national GP contract.
As medical director of Somerset LMC, he has been the driving force behind the area’s controversial decision to opt out of QOF en masse and instead have practices work to a new local deal funded with the money released from the framework.
Practices will continue to be doing a lot of the essential key work in QOF but won’t be reporting in each of the domains,’ he says. The aim is to give GPs space to breathe as they battle with an ‘intolerable workload’, says Dr Yoxall.
But the deal sparked alarm at the BMA and led to a number of other areas trying to copy its approach.
Dr Yoxall stresses that the problems facing general practice need to be sorted out quickly before the burden for GPs becomes too great. ‘The profession is going through a rough patch, but I genuinely think things are starting to change,’ he says.
Related articles:
Somerset GPs given approval from NHS managers to opt out of QOF completely
GPs offered deal to ditch majority of the QOF for this year
LMCs vote against abolition of QOF
