The good…
- The overall increase in GP funding will go up 3.3% year-on-year, an extra £238.7m, which the GPC says will translate to a 1% pay rise for GP partners. The 2.3% for expenses includes, reimbursement for indemnity inflation and CQC fees. This up 0.1 percentage points on the overall uplift last year (3.2%)
- Unplanned admissions DES scrapped, with the £156.7m put directly back into the global sum.
- Full reimbursement for CQC fees, for the first time. This won’t be added to the global sum. Practices will invoice commissioners for the full reimbursement of actual costs.
- Practices will be given a share of £30m worth of funding to cover indemnity costs on a case-by-case basis – as pledged in the GP Forward View.
- Practices will be entitled to sickness payment to cover staff absences – it will no longer be on a discretionary basis.
- Maternity payments to practices will no longer be on a pro-rata basis, and practices will now be able to submit an invoice and either the full amount or maximum payable will be reimbursed.
- The sum paid per health check under the learning disabilities DES will be increased from £116 to £140.
- GPs will receive a 1% pay uplift.
- NHS England will invest £2m into the global sum to account for increases in workload caused by Capita’s new records collection service, which will see practices having to bag and label individual patient records.
- Practices will be contractually required to complete the workforce census – £1.5m has been put into the global sum to recognise the work involved.
- No changes to the QOF, except for an increase in the value of a QOF point. A working group has been set up to discuss its future.
- Practices will no longer have to vaccinate four-year-olds in seasonal flu campaign.
- Morbidly obese are now covered for NHS flu jabs.
The not-as-good…
- Practices who regularly close for half a day will no longer be allowed to qualify for the extended hours DES from October 2017.
- A new contractual requirement, replacing the unplanned admissions DES, which will see practices identifying patients with severe frailties. Practices will not need to produce additional reports on this.
- Practices will have to require patients to self-declare that they hold either an EHIC or S1 form and prove they are eligible for free NHS care.
- From July 2017, all practices will be contractually required to allow collection of data relating to the NDA.
- Practices will be contractually required to enable the extraction of data relating to agreed indicators no longer in QOF.
- From July 2017, practices will be contractually required to allow prisoners to register before they leave prison.
