Pulse editor Sofia Lind on why the new Labour Government’s successful first GP contract negotiation is merely a promising start
Credit where credit is due. It has been four years since the BMA’s GP Committee last agreed to a proposed contract deal from the Government.
Whilst there’s still financial detail to be ironed out, and some of the additional global sum funding isn’t entirely new but repurposed from QOF, at first glance this is a very good deal for GPs.
And it hopefully sets a direction of travel, because when were GPs last trusted with an increase in core funding as opposed to being given many little pots of earmarked scraps?
The Government could have gone further. The removal of the ringfence for GP funding in the ARRS is welcome but I don’t see why it is necessary to mandate that they need to have qualified within the last two years.
And of course, whilst funding increases are welcome, this only marks a tidying over of practices whilst a lot more funding will be necessary if the Government is to achieve its yet-to-be-detailed ‘neighbourhood health service’ ambitions.
To that end, it’s worth noting that the BMA’s GP Committee has said its acceptance of the deal is conditional on receiving a written guarantee that a wholesale GMS renegotiation will take place before the end of Labour’s parliamentary term.
This major new contract, expected by 2028, needs to resolve several large problems for GP practices, including the recruitment and unemployment crisis; and growing health inequalities (including the forever-awaited Carr-Hill formula overhaul).
Ahead of the renegotiation, the GPC and the Government must also agree on a wider direction of travel for the future of general practice. Although he seems to have changed his tune, Mr Streeting had previously expressed a wish to do away with the GP partnership model.
Hopefully some of those answers will come forward in the next few months, if the 10-year plan – due in May – is a meaty document rather than headline wishes (I will believe this when I see it).
For Mr Streeting and the profession, this contract is a positive first indication of what may be to come, but what happens next will define the future of general practice.
Sofia Lind is editor of Pulse. Find her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn
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Seems that it’s not only Wes who is clueless.
Let’s review this “positive” in a year or two.
Most of the QOF points moved to Global sum, are guaranteed points for holding disease registers, Minimal reduction in workload follows the move to global sum funding unfortunately.
Also until exception reporting is allowed, or parents are not able to decline vaccinations, the extra payments for vaccinations will be tough for many practices to reach, as you are penalised so heavily for a few vaccine refusers, which has only magnified since the COVID vaccine.
Parents should not be able to register chldren in nurseries or clain child benefit until children vaccinated, and theat may help uptake percentages.