The Government will be bringing forward proposals for a ‘reform of the GMS contract’ in the new year.
Health secretary Wes Streeting reaffirmed his commitment to a ‘substantive reform of the GP contract within this parliament’ in a letter to GPs last week, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has told our sister publication Pulse. Meanwhile, the DHSC will put forward proposals for this ‘in the new year’.
The DHSC has been asked who will be consulted on the changes and if the process will be the same as the new arrangement for contract negotiations for 2026/27. Under this, the Government is to ‘consult’ the BMA’s GP committee alongside a wider group of stakeholders, including the Institute of General Practice Management. It comes after last month the Government spelt out its commitment to ‘substantive reform of the GMS contract’ within this parliament, in its evidence to the independent doctors’ pay review body.
Earlier this year, concerns were raised that the Government’s promise of a ‘new GP contract’ referred to the two new contracts mentioned in the 10-year plan, rather than to a new wholesale GMS contract which the BMA’s GP committee has been demanding.
The 10-year plan will introduce two new contracts for neighbourhood services, which the Government said will be an ‘alternative for GPs’, but grassroots GPs and GP leaders have since expressed concern that the plan could threaten GP partnerships as it did not mention a new GMS contract specifically.
However, in its evidence to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) for the next financial year, the Government has said that ‘substantive reform of the GMS contract’ will be ‘in addition’ to the two new contracts.
A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse
