Raiding a primary care network funding pot risks undermining one of the key ambitions of the Government’s flagship health plan, health leaders have warned.
The NHS Confederation said that proposals in the new 2026/27 GP contract to repurpose funding from the PCN capacity and access payment (CAP) ‘risks undermining’ the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan ambition to move more care out of hospitals and into the community.
A letter from NHS England to GP practices and PCN leaders sent last week confirmed that £292m of funding currently allocated to the CAP will be repurposed to pay practices to recruit more GPs and provide additional practice sessions.
Ruth Rankine, director of the primary care network and neighbourhood lead at the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said: ‘The government’s 10 Year Health Plan set out a clear ambition to deliver a ‘left shift’ by expanding the NHS neighbourhood model, and primary care is central to this.
‘However, redirecting investment from PCNs to individual practices risks undermining this ambition.
‘Without shared incentives, collaboration between practices will become even more difficult, and our primary care members have warned that this may leave them expected to deliver neighbourhood‑level services without the necessary infrastructure to do so.’
The CAP scheme was introduced in October 2022 as a monthly support payment, but in the 2023/24 Network DES this was split into two sections: 70% through a capacity and access payment (CAP) to be paid monthly based on adjusted population, and 30% as a capacity and access improvement payment (CAIP), based on PCN performance relating to access.
Ms Rankine said that many PCNs have used this funding to run shared services that support practices with access, IT systems, and staffing.
She added: ‘If this funding is removed, these PCN‑level services will be at risk.
‘In some areas, this will mean individual practices having to purchase their own IT systems, which could result in fewer patient appointments and practices being forced to fund additional clinics themselves, rather than delivering these at scale. Many of our members tell us they achieve significant cost‑efficiencies in procuring digital solutions and running additional services when operating at scale.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Our changes – including ringfencing and diverting £300 million to individual practices – bolster GP capacity, give practices flexibility on recruitment, improving access for patients with same-day appointments for those with urgent needs.
‘Flexibility means practices can give a GP more hours or bring in an extra GP part-time – equal to around 1,600 full time equivalent GPs across England – or an extra 25% of a GPs time per practice.’
The National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) said it supported the ambition to organise services around natural communities in the contract, providing changes are proportionate, locally led and properly resourced.
Andy Brooks, clinical chair of NAPC: ‘General practice — and GPs in particular — are willing to take accountability for medical leadership and outcomes within neighbourhood models of care, however accountability must be matched with investment in clinical leadership capacity and transformation support.’
A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse PCN
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