Return all ARRS funding to core GP contract, England LMCs demand

LMCs have called for the return of all Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) funding into the core GP contract.

At England’s LMCs conference in London today, GP leaders voted in favour of a motion arguing that the PCN DES and the ARRS have ‘failed to provide meaningful support’ to practices.

They demanded that the BMA’s GP Committee England ‘negotiates that all ARRS funding is returned to the core contract’ and for NHS England to boost practice funding so that partners can ’employ GPs as they wish’.

However, they voted against a part of the motion urging the Government to ‘allow recruitment of all GPs to PCNs under the ARRS’ regardless of qualification date, as speakers argued this would not be appropriate as it would redefine GPs positions ‘into a salaried profession’.

Proposing the motion, Gloucester LMC’s Dr Jethro Hubbard (pictured) said: ‘GPs go through years of training to do one of the most challenging jobs in healthcare.

‘If the Government truly values productivity and continuity of care, they need to step back, tell us the outcomes they want and trust us to deliver them.

‘This motion calls for this Government to put its money where its mouth is, fund core general practice and let us get on with the job we were trained to do.’

Dr Matthew Newton, a GP registrar from Cleveland LMC, who spoke in favour of the motion, told the conference: ‘I have to say the concept of GP for additional roles in general practice is absurd.

‘If I took one of these roles, I’d be attending a different practice within a PCN each day, sometimes changing at short notice to cover sickness.

‘And as a result, I’d have limited integration within each team, and I would then have limited support from each GP surgery that I probably need as a newly qualified GP.

‘We also have to know most places are offering the BMA model contract salary, but that’s just £3,000 more per year than what I earn. Now that’s not right. That’s still outdated.’

‘I absolutely agree with all the parts of the motion except little three – we are contracting ourselves in little three compared to the remaining four pars.

Dr Chandra Kanneganti, from North Staffordshire LMC, who spoke against part of the motion, said: ‘How can we say that we want ARRS funding into core, then urge the Government in little three to negotiate the funding to be open to all GPs – that doesn’t make sense. We have to keep on shouting our policy of “restore the core”.’

At the same conference, GP leaders have rejected a motion calling for a ‘fully salaried service’ based on the claim that core GP funding will never be ‘restored to the levels required for a thriving partnership’.

Health secretary Wes Streeting announced over the summer that the ARRS would be opened up to newly-qualified GPs as an ’emergency measure’ for 2024/25 aimed at hiring 1,000 more GPs.

NHS England later clarified that only GPs who had qualified in the last two years would be eligible, that GPs who had previously been ‘substantively employed’ at a practice would be ruled out.

In response, the BMA has asserted that measure is merely a ‘temporary sticking plaster’ which fails to address the issue of inadequate core funding.

The union’s sessional committee advised that any GPs employed under the scheme should only work across a ‘limited’ number of practices to help preserve ‘continuity of care’.

Pulse recently revealed that just under a third of PCNs were not planning to hire a GP through the ARRS at all, while 29% had not yet decided.