Local NHS plans are undermining promises to support general practice by planning reductions in doctor numbers, the Royal College of GPs warns today.
The plans fly in the face of promises to recruit more doctors and provide support for struggling practices, the college warns.
It revealed its analysis of England’s 44 sustainability and transformation plans as part of an assessment of progress on the GP Forward View, negotiated last year with NHS England.
The college says that many initiatives have been put in place, including a 4.4% increase in spending on general practice this year.
A new scheme for GPs returning to practice has proved successful – and now has more than 200 doctors involved, it says.
But a £16 million fund to support struggling practices has been little used – leaving more than 1,000 practices without support, the college says.
The report says that just £2.5 million was spent by the end of last year helping 219 practices out of 1,453 thought to be needing support.
The college found that some local plans failed to mention the GP Forward View while others planned a reduction in GPs numbers and others referred to it “in passing.”
Chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: Itís incredibly frustrating to hear that pots of money are just sitting there waiting to be spent ñ money that has been earmarked for struggling practices. NHS England needs to be out there, making sure the practices who could benefit from this money know about it, and making it easy for them to access it.
Also extremely concerning is the lack of recognition for general practice in many STPs this is against all common sense, against all the evidence about how to run an efficient health service and against NHS Englandís own guidance.”
She added: “We are seeing progress at a national level ñ we need to see it at local level, we need to see it having a positive impact on the front line of patient care in the community, and we need to see it benefiting our patients.
February 1, 2017 at 4:38 pm
It is very disappointing to note that only a little of the funding that is available for GP practices in need has actually been utilised.
As a Healthcare Business Consultant I have seen first hand the dreadful state of affairs that a GP practice can get itself into and have developed ways of supporting practices to gain a clear view of what their financial future holds. Being forewarned is forearmed they say. So as a result practices can have greater focus on what income streams they can maximise and have a clear picture of where any savings can be made in expenses.
At the end of the day GPs just want to be able to care for the health of their community and not have the stresses of knowing whether or not they can pay their practice wage bill at the end of the month. The demands on GPs are becoming ever greater and to add wrestling with financials adds an unnecessary layer.
It would be interesting to understand the criteria for accessing this support fund and how widely publicised it actually is.