28th May 2016
GP leaders have called for an additional £2.5bn in funding for general practice as an urgent measure; helping relieve pressure on the service. The BMA’s ‘urgent prescription’ to lessen the crisis facing general practice was published on Thursday 7th April as NHS England and the DH announce their GP Roadmap policy package. GPC chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said GPs were calling for ‘both urgent and sustained action to resolve the current crises.’ The document sets out a series of policy proposals to be implemented as an immediate rescue package for long-term sustainability for general practice.
The measures include:
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Fair and sustainable funding and resources to reach a minimum of 11% of NHS spend; to cover the work of general practice and to resolve the funding deficit
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Reducing workload to ensure delivery of safe and high quality care with a national standard for a maximum number of patients that GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals
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An expanded workforce, both within and around the practice
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Reducing the regulatory burden of the CQC to prevent time and resource being taken away from service provision
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Reducing bureaucracy and duplication to empower professionals and to give more time to care for patients
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens has said a GP Roadmap policy package would be ‘far wider’ than the annual contract changes to help practice with workload, workforce and care redesign. The package is expected to include details on the roll-out of new care models and the enhanced GP services developed by the prime minister’s Challenge Fund pilots. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said details of how new investment allocated to the service will be spent. NHS England has announced plans to increase GP funding by 4-5% a year for the next five years. Other measures expected in the GP Roadmap include a bureaucracy reduction plans first announced by Mr Hunt last October, including scrapping GPs’ responsibility for hospital re-referrals following missed appointments, and the creation of a unified, single stream GP payments system.
Dr Nagpaul commented that ‘GPs across the country are calling for both urgent and sustained action to resolve the current crisis facing general practice and ensure that practices can deliver high-quality and safe patient care, both today and in the future. This important document brings together practical and deliverable ideas from GPs and sets out a comprehensive, positive and practical approach which, if adopted, would make a significant difference to both practices and patients.
This document provides the detail of the BMA’s campaign, with a comprehensive range of specific measures to address the crisis in general practice.’