Nearly a quarter of practices have yet to sign up for the new contract with days before a deadline, it has been revealed.

Only a handful of practices intend to refuse the contract, which attracted controversy over its requirement to provide increased levels of care for care homes, according to a leaked memo. Practices have to sign before Monday (1 June) and just 73% – 4,892 – have done so, according to the Health Service Journal.

An NHS England analysis suggests another 1,556 practices intend to sign the contract. Some 194 practices are said to be undecided while 74 intend to opt out. Practices have been told they will lose a participation grant of £1.76 per patients if they refuse to sign – and that they will not be able to negotiate preferential access to the services of primary care networks.

An NHS England spokeswoman said: “The coronavirus pandemic has shown just how important and valuable it is for NHS teams and organisations to work together much more closely for the benefit of patients, so it is welcome that the vast majority of GP practices have either already signed up to the contract or expressed their intention to do so by the deadline to take advantage of the funding, workforce and development opportunities, and we expect more to sign up in the coming days.”