Various PCNs, including those with student practices, may have seen their DES payments undervalued since April 2025.
A change in data source has led to the inclusion of an incorrect number of new patient registrations being included in the DES payment calculations, a letter from NHS England primary care director, Dr Amanda Doyle, said.
This means that ‘all PCNs will see some movement in their payments for core PCN funding,’ according to the letter, with most seeing their payments increase but some facing reductions in funding.
New patient registrations from September were also ‘erroneously excluded’, according to a bulletin from the BMA, which referenced the issue.
These inaccuracies will have particularly affected PCNs with student practices and those that have recently merged, according to the BMA.
‘This will have had little impact on most PCNs but will impact those that include student practices as these see a large number of new patient registrations in September. It is likely their weighted capitation has been underestimated,’ it said.
For practices that have merged, it said that new patient registrations were originally included when they should not have been. Therefore these PCNs may see their payments reduce.
NHS England has already identified an alternative data source and recalculated the adjusted populations for each PCN.
‘PCSE will use the amended PCN adjusted populations for monthly payments to PCNs from June onwards,’ it said.
In her letter to ICB chief executives and regional heads of primary care, dated 30 May, Dr Doyle said: ‘All PCNs will see some movement in their payments for core PCN funding, the enhanced access service, PCN capacity and access support and PCN capacity and access incentives:
- Most PCNs will see their payments increase by small amounts,
- PCNs with recently merged practices will see their payments reduce,
- PCNs with practices for which new patient registrations are concentrated in September, such as student practices, will see their payments increase.’
It added that ICBs will need to ‘make good’ underpayments and consider ‘in discussion with their constituent PCNs’ how overpayments in April and May should be resolved.
The letter said that the adjusted population figures have also been used to calculate the number of enhanced access minutes that a PCN is required to deliver, and so some PCNs may see these figures change as well as payments.
‘ICBs should work with their PCNs to agree how to address any impact of the recalculation on the number of minutes required,’ it warned.
Brownlow Health PCN in Liverpool, which has a student practice, is one PCN that has been affected by this change. Though the correction to the DES funding led to a backdated increase in funding, it also meant the network had to deliver four extra hours of enhanced access per week.
A spokesperson for the PCN said: ‘While the additional funding is welcome, the extra workload presents operational challenges, particularly given current workforce pressures. Practices are working together to ensure these extra hours are implemented sustainably.’
Clinical director at Central and Warrington West PCN, Dr Laura Mount, added that the change had ‘caused some anxiety’ when the PCN first heard about it as it had ‘put plans in place…at the beginning of the year based upon these figures’.
However, she said the PCN was not greatly affected by the recalculation.
‘We were relieved to discover that our numbers increased slightly and so the only real impact was that we had to add 15 minutes to out enhanced access provision,’ she said.
A version of this article was first published by Pulse PCN
