Practices in greater Manchester are to benefit from £2 million of extra funding through a deal involving the Royal College of GPs, it has been announced.

The money is to come from the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, which is overseeing health services in the region.

It will deliver the “GP Excellence Programme,” enabling practices to share innovative ideas, it was stated.

There will also be support for practices struggling to cope with rising demand, the college said.

College vice-chair Professor Martin Marshall said: “We’re delighted to have this opportunity to work with Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership in order to promote high quality, safe patient care in general practice right across Greater Manchester.

“There are so many excellent initiatives already happening in general practice – we want to identify these and find ways to replicate them, where appropriate, elsewhere, as well as trialling other innovative ways of working.

“We also want to provide support to any GPs and their teams that are finding it difficult to meet escalating patient demand within the confines of finite resources and workforce.”