Another funding storm is on the horizon with the recently announced rise in national practice contract funding for England. For all the people working in general practice, a rise is a rise, but when it amounts to about 2% in the context of an overstretched service, in which some doctors working in other parts of…

NHS England recently published a letter outlining details of the 2024/25 GP contract. Not many of us were expecting a huge windfall for practices this year, but even so, it was still a shock to find out just how little is being invested in general practice in the coming year. In this month’s podcast, I…

Practices praised for delivering record numbers of appointments November 2023 was the busiest November ever for general practice, according to NHS England, and this highlights the enormous pressure on GP services. The number of appointments was 30% higher than before the pandemic, and almost 70% of appointments were in person. NHS England Director for Primary…

The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, commits to every patient having the right to be offered digital-first primary care by 2023/24. The various commitments that make up this plan have been introduced gradually every year through the GP Contract since 2019/20, which means GP practices should, among other new requirements, now offer an…

This week, NHSE have released their Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care along with a covering letter. Well, dear readers, I’ve waded through it, as I’m sure many of you will have done, and I’ll admit to being a bit confused. As is common of late, many of the announcements and ideas that…

Recent political turmoil has led to the appointment of a new health and social care secretary in the form of Steve Barclay and a new Prime Minister is due to be selected by early September. When new people come into such influential posts, there is a brief chance to seek their attention and enlist their…

Practices have suffered a double blow in the latest NHS pay awards, GP leaders have warned. As reported on Practice Index, most NHS staff, including practice nurses and salaried GPs, have been awarded pay increases of 4.5%. The pay award also recommends that NHS staff under the Agenda for Change (AfC) contract should receive a…