The Government has unveiled the first details of the next GP contract, including an extra £889m ‘on top of the existing budget’ for general practice.
The proposals, announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) just before Christmas, include reducing the number of QOF targets from 76 to 44 and adding practice nurses to ARRS.
The Government will consult on its proposals for the GP contract for 2025/26 with the BMA’s GP committee ‘over the coming weeks’ before unveiling it in spring next year, it has said.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘General practice is buckling under the burden of bureaucracy, with GPs filling out forms instead of treating patients. It is clear the system is broken, which is why we are slashing red tape, binning outdated performance targets, and instead freeing doctors up to do their jobs.
‘We are proposing substantial additional investment and greater flexibility to employ doctors so patients get better care. I call on GPs to now work with us to get the NHS back on its feet and end their collective action.’
To support the shift of care from sickness to prevention, the Government plans to provide financial incentives to reward GPs who ‘go above and beyond’ to prevent the most common killers, such as heart disease. It says that doctors will ‘benefit if they ensure as many patients as possible with high blood pressure are identified and treated as soon as possible – before they end up in hospital’.
And to support the shift from analogue to digital the Government plans to require GPs to ensure patients can contact their surgery electronically throughout core hours – as well as in person or over the phone – helping more people book an appointment or speak to a doctor.
What we know about the proposals so far
The announcement made just before Christmas was light on detail. The Government has so far proposed:
- An extra £889m ‘on top of the existing budget for general practice’
- To ‘remove red tape’ and make funding available under ARRS for ‘more primary care staff’, including practice nurses
- To reduce the number of QOF targets – from 76 to 44
- To provide financial incentives to ‘reward GPs’ who help prevent ‘the most common killers’ like heart disease
- To incentivise GPs to ensure patients ‘most in need’ see the same doctor at every GP appointment.
- It will consult on its proposals with the GPC over the coming weeks before unveiling it in full in spring 2025
Source: DHSC
GPC England said the proposals ‘could signal’ that the profession has reached ‘the end of the beginning’ and that it is clear from the health secretary’s ‘tone’ that the BMA’s messaging and efforts ‘are starting to yield results’.
The committee said: ‘We are told that the headline figure represents new money. If our modelling or calculations reveals this not to be the case, we will hold Government to account.’
It said that in addition to the proposed £889m uplift to the GMS and PCN DES in 2025/25, GP leaders hope to ‘secure additional money’ in the coming weeks from ‘separate pots’, ringfenced to support elective recovery.
These funding pots fall outside the remit of the health secretary’s announcement, according to the GPCE, which is ‘designed to provide a necessary assurance’ to practices around the ‘additional business pressures’ that they will face in the new financial year.
The headline figure of £889m does not specifically outline compensation for the rise in National Insurance contributions, which the Institute of General Practice Management calculate will incur additional costs of approximately £20,000 a year for the average practice.
GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer said that GP practices across the country have been ‘frantic with worry’ around the impact of the rise in national insurance contributions from April.
Last year, the GPC outlined demands to end collective action, including GP practice core funding to rise by at least £40 per patient for 2025/26 and for a new GP contract committing to a ‘minimum general practice investment standard’.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse and Healthcare Leader.
