ICBs have been told by NHS England to review the payments made to practices since April which may have been impacted by the recent contract changes.
In a letter to ICBs, NHS England outlined the various changes to the GP contract since August and their financial implications for ICBs.
The changes included the government’s acceptance of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) and additional funding for primary care networks (PCNs) to employ GPs through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), announced in August. It added that ‘since then’ the government had also agreed to fund a 6% uplift to locum reimbursement maximum entitlements.
On the locum uplifts, the letter asked ICBs to ‘review all claims paid since 1 April 2024’ and where a practice had previously exceeded the maximum amount, and either increase that to the amount the practice paid, or to the new maximum reimbursable amount, whichever was lower.
ICBs have also been told to calculate the backdated global sum payments for any practices or PCNs not included in Primary Care Support England’s (PCSE) payment runs. For those who are in PCSE’s remit, they will calculate and process these.
The letter, from Keira Moulds, deputy director of GP contract at NHS England, said: ‘For practices and PCNs not included in the PCSE’s payment runs, ICBs need to:
- ‘Calculate the backdated global sum payments for any practices that are paid global sum or global sum equivalent (“global sum-like”) payments,
- ‘Make backdated payments as soon as is practical, along with the in-month payments that are to be paid at the new rate of £112.50 per weighted patient,
- ‘Continue paying these practices at the new rate for any further payments due in 2024/25,
- ‘Calculate the backdated and future payments due to PCNs in relation to the uplifted PCN entitlements set out in Table 1 on page 58 of the PCN DES specification.’
It clarified that ICBs will be able to draw their share of the £82m for GPs hired through ARRS using the same principles as for the other ARRS roles.
The letter added that given the pay uplift, ICBs might need to increase the payment or reimbursable rate for pay-related GP workforce SDF lines, for example fellowships and local GP retention schemes.
‘Additional allocations totalling £58m were issued to ICBs on 30 September, enabling them to backdate uplifts to the pay-related elements for transformational GP workforce programmes to 1 April 2024. Further details and guidance on this will be provided shortly,’ the letter said.
It comes as more than four in 10 GP practices are now limiting patient appointments as part of collective action to bring about better terms and conditions, with more considering doing so.
