I wrote to the House on 6 January announcing an £889 million proposed funding uplift to general practice, the largest funding uplift in years. Alongside this, I shared an overview of some proposals for the 2025-26 GP contract consultation.
I am pleased to share that the BMA General Practitioners Committee in England, have voted to accept the 2025-26 GP contract for the first time in four years. As the front door of our NHS, general practice plays a key role in managing pressures across the system and delivering care closer to home. This is an important milestone in the Government’s plan for change, and begins delivery on key manifesto commitments to bring back the family doctor and end the 8 am scramble, marking a step forward in fixing our NHS and resetting relationships with the profession.
Over the formal consultation with the GPCE officer team, changes to the 2025-26 GP contract were discussed with my Department and NHS England officials. I am grateful for their work at pace to collaborate and agree a fair deal for the NHS, for the profession and for patients. The 2025-26 GP contract will deliver increased investment, improvements in patient access and outcomes, reduced bureaucracy, and increased flexibilities for primary care networks to hire the right staff mix for their local population. The GPCE officer team recommended this package to the wider committee, which voted in favour. This signals the beginning of our work together to achieve the “left shift”, moving more care from hospitals into the community, ensuring the focus is on prevention and not sickness.
This package will support bringing back the family doctor by incentivising practices to identify patients who would benefit most from continuity of care. We will also build capacity in general practice by increasing flexibilities in how they recruit staff. This will improve productivity, optimise workforce balance, and support the hiring of more GPs and practice nurses.
We will make progress in moving towards a neighbour-hood health service through a greater focus on prevention and system integration. To achieve this, we will remove 32 outdated targets while strengthening existing targets for cardiovascular disease, supporting the Government’s mission to reduce deaths from the biggest killers. We will also reinforce integration with community pharmacies through better access to records, enhancing patient care co-ordination. To make significant progress on cutting waiting lists, GPs will be encouraged to seek advice from specialists when unsure about making a referral to hospital. Up to £80 million of funding will be made available for doctors to liaise with specialist consultants, which can avoid people being added on to waiting lists unnecessarily.
We will improve digital access by requiring practices to have their online consultation portals switched on throughout core hours, providing parity with walk-in and phoning in. This will ensure patients can reach their practice via the means that suits them best and helping to end the 8 am scramble. To empower patients and increase transparency, we will introduce a patient charter that clearly outlines what patients can expect from general practice and what general practice can expect from patients, improving communication and service use.
Aside from the consultation, we have made significant strides over the last eight months, including the addition of GPs into additional roles reimbursement scheme from October 2024, listening to the profession’s call for action required to tackle GP unemployment. I look forward to continued collaborative working with the general practice profession, as we build a better future for general practice and step back from collective action.
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