The Government has unveiled the first details of the next GP contract, including an extra £889m ‘on top of the existing budget’ for general practice.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has this morning announced that it has put a new GP contract for 2025/26 to the British Medical Association’s General Practice Committee for consultation.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ’General practice is buckling under the burden of bureaucracy, with GPs filling out forms instead of treating patients. It is clear the system is broken, which is why we are slashing red tape, binning outdated performance targets, and instead freeing doctors up to do their jobs.
’We promised to bring back the family doctor, but we want to be judged by results – not promises. That’s why we will incentivise GPs to ensure more and more patients see the same doctor at each appointment.
’We are proposing substantial additional investment and greater flexibility to employ doctors so patients get better care. I call on GPs to now work with us to get the NHS back on its feet and end their collective action.’
To support the shift of care from sickness to prevention the Government plans to provide financial incentives to reward GPs who ‘go above and beyond’ to prevent the most common killers such as heart disease. It says that doctors will ‘benefit if they ensure as many patients as possible with high blood pressure are identified and treated as soon as possible – before they end up in hospital’.
And to support the shift from analogue to digital the Government plans to require GPs to ensure patients can contact their surgery electronically throughout core hours – as well as in person or over the phone – helping more people book an appointment or speak to a doctor.
The proposals also include adding practice nurses to ARRS and reducing the number of QOF targets from 76 to 44.
DHSC states: ‘Hundreds more newly-qualified GPs and practice nurses are also set to be employed across the country under the proposals, with the government proposing to remove red tape and make funding available – under a scheme known as the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) – for more primary care staff to find roles in their community.’
The Government will consult on its proposals for the GP contract for 2025/26 with the BMA’s GP committee ‘over the coming weeks’, before unveiling it in spring next year.
GPC England said it is clear from the health secretary’s ‘tone’ that the BMA’s messaging and efforts ‘are starting to yield results’.
In a message this morning, the committee said: ‘We are told that the headline figure represents new money. If our modelling or calculations reveals this not to be the case, we will hold Government to account.
‘We hope this marks the start of a very long journey. We’ll be spending Christmas analysing, modelling and scrutinising ahead of commencing negotiations in the new year.’
It said that in addition to the proposed £889m uplift to the GMS and PCN DES in 2025/25, GP leaders hope to ‘secure additional money’ in the coming weeks from ‘separate pots’, ringfenced to support elective recovery.
But these funding pots fall outside the remit of the health secretary’s announcement today, according to the GPCE, which is ‘designed to provide a necessary assurance’ to practices around the ‘additional business pressures’ that they will face in the new financial year.
Today’s announcement includes the headline figure of £889m but does not specifically outline compensation for the impact of the NICs hike on practices, which one LMC warned would cost English GP practices a total of £260m.
GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer said that the committee hopes that today’s funding announcement will be looked back on as ‘a positive starting point for an evolving conversation’.
She added that GP practices across the country have been ‘frantic with worry’ around the impact of the rise in national insurance contributions from April.
She said: ‘The BMA has shared data with Government to make clear just how grave the situation is, with practices drafting redundancy notices, and in some cases facing closure.
‘England’s GPs have been urgently waiting for a clear commitment from Government to provide assurance around increased business costs, as well as a change in direction away from the previous Government’s three consecutive years of contractual imposition which led to the profession taking historic steps of embarking upon the BMA’s collective action campaign, which has been gathering pace through the autumn.
‘Hopefully today’s news provides an important lifeline for our 6,000 plus practices, and we are committed to reaching consensus around the management of the additional business pressures that practices will face in the new financial year and we look forward to seeing the detail in due course.’
Earlier this year, the GPC outlined demands to end collective action, including GP practice core funding to rise by at least £40 per patient for 2025/26, and for a new GP contract committing to a ‘minimum general practice investment standard’.
It called for the Government to commit to a new GP contract to be implemented by April 2028 ‘at the latest’, with ‘sustained annual investment’ taking into account inflation, and uplifted year-on-year.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: ‘Hard-working GP teams are delivering millions more appointments a month compared to before the pandemic, and it is vital they are given extra resources to improve access for patients and help people live healthier lives – with a renewed focus on preventing major killers, such as heart disease and strokes.
’General practice is the front door to the NHS – speaking to GPs and their teams, they are clear that embracing reform is key to improving patient experience and managing record demand.’
Ruth Rankine, director of the NHS Confederation’s primary care network welcomed the announcement.
‘This provides the biggest investment into general practice and PCNs since the end of the five-year contract deal two years ago. It will provide much needed relief to a sector that has borne the brunt of low financial uplifts over the last two years at the same time as significant cost pressures.
‘This announcement shows the government is walking the walk on the neighbourhood health service by putting in place the building blocks in primary care – which will be the cornerstone of the reformed service – to make it a reality,’ she said.
Louise Ansari, chief executive, Healthwatch England said: ‘Struggling to make a GP appointment is one of the top issues people share with Healthwatch. So people will welcome this focus on strengthening support to GP teams, so they can get the local advice, treatment, prescriptions and referrals they need.
‘As the NHS embarks on long-term reforms, its vital that short-term changes give people more choices over their care, more time to discuss their symptoms and lives in a safe space, and personalised support which works for them and their families.’
However, the announcement has angered pharmacy leaders.
Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said it was ‘an outrage that GP’s have been offered their contract for the next financial year before pharmacies have even received an offer for the current year – nine months late’.
‘There is huge strength of feeling among our members about their current financial position and this does nothing to reduce the chance of pharmacies being forced to take collective action to protect their services for patients,’ he said.
‘The seemingly endless delays to this year’s contract negotiations only reinforces the belief that there is a lack of respect for pharmacies within government and leaves hardworking pharmacies abandoned in the dark, causing them stress and uncertainty about their future.
‘Uncertainty about funding is preventing pharmacies from investing in better services and reform – instead making them take on debts or question whether they can continue at all.
‘The government must get around the table as soon as is possible to end the crippling uncertainty and offer reassurance and security to pharmacies so they can serve their communities with confidence,’ he added.
A version of this story was first published on our sister titles Pulse and The Pharmacist.
