Welsh GP leaders have accepted a revised contract offer from the Government for 2024/25, including a £23m ‘practice stabilisation payment’.
The BMA said that the Welsh GP committee (GPC) was presented with ‘a significantly improved offer’ from the Welsh Government this month, marking ‘a positive turn’ in the contract negotiations.
The revised offer, accepted at the end of last month, includes a non-recurrent £23 million ‘practice stabilisation payment’, bringing the total additional investment for the 2024/25 financial year to £52.1m, and realising the doctors and dentists pay review body recommendation of a 6% pay uplift for GPs, salaried GPs and practice staff.
The agreement will be backdated to 1 April 2024.
The union added that this new offer was a ‘direct response’ from the Government to the results of a referendum last month, which saw almost 99% of Welsh GPs voting in favour of rejecting a previous contract offer.
In addition to the one-off payment, the offer also includes:
- £10.6m to realise the recommended 6% pay uplift for GP partners
- £12.7m to realise the recommended 6% uplift for all practice staff and salaried GPs
- A further £1.8m ‘to support practices with ongoing business expenses’
- £4m of additional capacity fund investment in 2024/25 with a commitment to continue at the same level for 2025/26.
GPC Wales has said that the 6% staff uplift should be applied after any statutory increase in National Minimum or Living Wage has been added.
It said in guidance: ‘For instance, if you have already uplifted an individual staff member’s pay rate to the value of the national minimum wage from 1 April 2024 (as you were legally obliged) you will need to retrospectively apply the further 6% contractual uplift.’
It also explained that the staffing expenses element represents the total gross cost of staff pay, so the increase includes employers’ on-cost contributions.
A GMS Contract Implementation Group will now be established, which will include GPC Wales representation, to take forward the agreed negotiation outcomes and produce detailed guidance for practices, the BMA has said.
BMA Welsh GP committee chair Dr Gareth Oelmann said the offer was accepted on the basis that this ‘significant’ uplift will provide GPs with ‘greater stability’ in the immediate term given the ‘challenging’ circumstances practices find themselves in.
But he said that the settlement ‘does not resolve every issue’ and that there are reservations about the funding being non-recurrent.
He said: ‘We are pleased that the Welsh Government swiftly grasped the strength of feeling amongst the profession and took decisive action by providing a credible offer which we hope will provide GPs with much-needed resources to deliver vital care to patients.
‘We acknowledge that this settlement does not resolve every issue, and we have reservations about non-recurrent funding given the awareness of upcoming unavoidable costs from the start of the financial year.
‘Nevertheless, it provides a solid foundation we can build upon in the next round of negotiations for the 2025/26 contract; we have assurances from the Welsh Government that this will take place as early as possible.’
As part of the contract deal, agreement was also reached on a number of commitments and contract changes, including:
- Covid antivirals (oral treatments) for immunocompromised patients as ‘unified’ services.
- Learning Disability Directed Supplementary Service (DSS) transferred into ‘unified’ services, with qualifying definition to be agreed. Existing DSS spend of £0.5m will move into the global sum.
- Collection of data via GP systems on frailty and ethnicity
- Practices to enable the repeat prescribing functionality of NHS Wales App.
- Practices to assist patients with Welsh Identity Verification Service (WIVS). This is essentially onboarding for patients for the NHS Wales app.
Cabinet secretary for health and social care Jeremy Miles said that the offer shows that the Welsh Government ‘recognises the pressures and increased costs facing general practice’.
He said: ‘To support GPs, I am making an additional £23m available in 2024/25 as a one-off practice stabilisation payment.
‘The Welsh Government, NHS Wales and GPC Wales have agreed to continue to work together, in social partnership, to explore potential solutions to these sustainability issues through different service models, which will also support our shared aim of delivering more care closer to home including diagnostics.’
The contract negotiations for the current financial year had encountered several delays and Welsh GPs said they were ‘actively evaluating all available options’ for dispute against the Government due to the delays.
