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£2.4bn funding boost for GP services in England
An extra £2.4bn a year will be invested into GP services by 2020 according to a new General Practice Forward View which is a blueprint for the future of GP services drawn up by Simon Stevens head of NHS England, other NHS bodies and GP organisations. The investment aims to improve access for patients to their GP it is hoped this money will alleviate the crisis in primary care where patients are waiting too long for appoints and having difficulty accessing primary care services. The Patients Association has welcomed investment in primary care and the acknowledgment of the problems primary care is facing. Simon Steven’s said "GPs are by far the largest branch of British medicine and as a recent British Medical Journal headline put it - if general practice fails, the whole NHS fails.” This is evidenced by the knock on effects of poor access to GP services which piles pressure on A & E units.
The Primary Care sector is under immense pressure with an estimated 370 million consultations a year which is up by 70 million in five years. This is a worrying trend considering a third of GPs say they are planning to retire in the next five years. GPs carry out 370 million appointments a year which is 90% of all NHS consultations but currently have had only 8% of the funding this new investment will see that rise to 10%. The investment will help pay for the 5,000 extra GPs and 5,000 more non-medical staff, including nurses, pharmacists and therapists, which were promised by the Conservatives in their election manifesto. However, there is a concern that some of these new staff will not be regulated in the same way doctors are for example physician assistants are an unregulated group.
The funding will also include extra support and help for GPs suffering from stress, relaxation of rules which will make it easier to renovate buildings and build new ones, streamlined inspections for the best-performing practices, meaning surgeries rated good or outstanding by the Care Quality Commission will only be inspected every five years,rather than three under the current system. A public campaign to encourage junior doctors to become GPs and the recruitment of 500 doctors from abroad to boost numbers. Patients will also be encouraged to use “self-care” to manage their conditions, including using online resources with the aim of reducing the need to see a GP, especially for those with minor illnesses and long-term conditions.
The document has also made clear that no individual GP or any GP surgery will have to offer patients seven-day access to care. NHS England has left the exact opening hours for GPs to agree and operate locally. This is at odds with the Prime Minsters pledge that every patient would be able to see a GP between 8am and 8pm every day by 2020. There has beencontinued argument against this by GP bodies who have said this pledge is unachievable due to the poor state of primary care.
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