The government will do its best to remove bureaucratic burdens on practices – but will encourage new ways of running them, a conference was told yesterday.

This will include further steps to improve and “simplify” the Quality and Outcomes Framework – which rewards GPs for specific tasks – and the appraisal system, the conference of the National Association of Primary Care was told.

Health secretary Matt Hancock told the conference these moves were “subject to negotiations on the primary care contract.” He went on to call for a “diversity of approach” in primary care.

He spoke amid concerns about the future of the partnership model of general practice, the subject of an investigation by Dr Nigel Watson. Mr Hancock suggested that practices should be able to run themselves as “John Lewis style” mutuals – which would mean all staff have a share in the ownership.

Mr Hancock went on to talk about changing the “balance of spending” in the NHS as budgets are expanded by a promised £20 billion. He said the focus of spending should move to keeping patients well and living in the community, longer out of hospital.

He told the conference: “Our vision for primary care is this: GPs as the bedrock of the NHS, part of broader primary care networks, better integrated and supported within our health system.”

This would be “all with the goal of treating ill health closer to communities and preventing ill health in the first place, so that the nation we serve can live longer, healthier lives.”

His comments were welcomed by the Community Network, an organisation set up by the NHS Confederation.

Its chair Matthew Winn said: “It was encouraging to hear the Secretary of State’s support for primary care and community services and articulating the need to shift the balance of services closer to home. The development of the long term NHS plan offers an excellent opportunity to deliver on this vision.

“The future must be about how we work together to support people to stay well for longer, provide more care closer to home and strengthen the links between primary care, community services and social care.”

• The government lacks an “overall strategy” to integrate health and social care systems, according to a critical report by MPs today.

Integrated working is a “long way” from being in place throughout England while long-standing legal, structural and cultural barriers hinder the pace and scale of change, according to the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons.

Committee chair Meg Hillier said: “The time for warm words and wishful thinking is over. If Government is serious about delivering the benefits of integrated health and social care, it must act to make it happen.”

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmpubacc/1376/137602.html