As you’ve probably read by now, this week saw the publication of the new GP contract for 2017/18. Reading through the publication, it appears there’s some good news tempered, of course, by some bad.
The headlines are that GPs will receive a pay rise of approximately 1% and the unplanned admissions DES will be scrapped, with the £156.7m freed up by this being ploughed into the global sum. This is in addition to an investment of around £238m going into the contract for 2017/18.
That’s undoubtedly positive, but the use of the word ‘around’ provides a clue to the lack of information surrounding this increased investment. The GPC said they have agreed “an increase in expenses that should deliver a pay uplift of 1%, which will be added to the global sum”. Details are sketchy, to say the least, so watch this space for full confirmation of what the actual figure is once it’s announced.
A number of other financial benefits for practices were announced and they include:
- For the first time, practices will receive full reimbursement for CQC fees. Rather than being added to the global sum, practices will invoice commissioners directly for the actual costs.
- £30m is available to cover rising GP indemnity costs. Practices will receive a share of the fund on a per patient basis, and the GPC has warned that it expects partners to ensure salaried and locum GPs receive fair shares of the uplift.
- Health check payments made under the learning disabilities DES will rise from £116 to £140.
- Practices that work together to provide more evening and weekend appointments will be eligible for additional non-contractual funding over and above the current scheme.
- A £3.8m uplift for pensions superannuation was announced.
- No changes are to be made to the QOF, except for an increase in the value of a QOF point. NHS England has agreed with the BMA that a group will be set up after April 2017 to discuss the future of the payment.
Payments for admin
Recognising the burden of admin that practice managers have to deal with and the costs of running a practice, the new contract provides some further good news.
For example, £2m is being added to the global sum to account for increases in workload caused by Capita’s new records collection service, which will see practices having to bag and label individual patient records.
Practices will also be entitled to sickness payments to cover absence, a change to the previous discretionary basis. On a similar note, maternity payments made to practices will no longer be made pro-rata; practices will now be able to submit an invoice for the full amount or the maximum payable.
The bad
While the above has generally been welcomes by practices, it’s not all good news! Under the new deal, from October practices which close for half a day during the week will not normally be eligible for funding under the extended hours DES. The GPC said this will not affect practices with local agreements for branch or small practices, and will not affect practices closing once a month for staff training.
Also, while the unplanned DES has been scrapped, practices will be contractually obliged to identify patients with severe frailties. This is in line with NHS England’s increased focus on some of the most vulnerable, with tailored annual reviews offered to frail pensioners, and an increase in the number of health checks for people with learning disabilities.
Practices will also be contractually required to determine a new patient’s eligibility for NHS healthcare to help the service recover costs from overseas visitors. And further data jobs will be need to be completed as, from July 2017, all practices will be contractually required to allow collection of data relating to the NDA. There is also the contractual requirement to enable the extraction of data relating to agreed indicators no longer in QOF.
Your views
While the practice managers that we spoke to were still getting their heads around the new contract, initial thoughts were positive.
“I think it does ease the admin strain on us but I don’t think our GP partners will be happy with a 1% pay rise!” one PM commented. “It is a step in the right direction and it perhaps shows that thinking about practices is about more than just GPs.”
Another PM told us: “Funding CQC fees and rising costs of indemnity will help us but I don’t agree with the changes to funding if we choose to close for half a day. That’s vital catch-up time for all of us that we might be forced to lose. I need to read more about it to be honest though, before I make a judgement.”
More information on the new contract will be released between now and April – so watch this space!
What’s your view on the GP contract for 2017/18? Let us know by commenting below or in the forum here.
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February 10, 2017 at 11:22 am
I think the BMA GPs Committee should be commended for making these positive steps with regards Practice work (and workload – removal of AUA is very much needed) and rather than looking at half empty glass I think we should think of a glass half full and grab the good negotiations that have taken place with both hands; it’s the first refreshing news we have had for years and nothing can be worse than having to continue the monitoring the AUA; although Practices automatically care for such patients and put whatever time is needed into such patients, it took so much time up maintaining AUA Register at 2%, using IT that half the time didnt work to enter the data (albeit that our local IT staff have worked very hard to make it work), then there were the end of year worries of whether the correct date would pull (one surgery local to me still hasn’t been paid for component 1 for this current financial year as the data pull didn’t complete at all on CQRS through no fault of the Practice (our CCG are working hard to ensure payment is given) but we do not need all this nonsense in our day to day work. Recompense towards such things as the changes with the Capita contract has brought is good as well as we have been upside down over the last few months. CQC fee being met for this year will help us immensely as a single-handed Practice – the fee for us was ridiculous and not much less than a big multi-partner Practice. Hopefully, reimbursement can be agreed for recurrent years.
Many thanks and well done to Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, BMA GPs Committee, Chair, his team of negotiators and, of course, our LMCs who play a huge part in such negotiations – I am one Practice Manager who is very grateful of your work.
February 10, 2017 at 11:39 am
Apologies but would it be possible to highlight in such posts that they only apply to English practices? There are a few folk in the other devolved nations who may be confused or, perish the thought, a tad miffed at such posts that hide a tacit assumption of an Anglo-centric universe.
Spoken as an Englishman living in Scotland.
March 27, 2017 at 9:34 am
I feel sorry that you’ll never experience the joys of CQC inspections Andrew – hope it never comes your way.
Spoken as an Englishwoman living in England, but formerly of Andrew’s parish.
February 13, 2017 at 12:02 pm
I’m just reading through the detail from the BMA website and looking just at the proposal of CQC fees being reimbursed, I consider this to be a small, but very significant victory!
The devil is always in the detail of course, and if the Government can find a way to shaft us, then they will……but at the moment, I am feeling that there may be a tiny tiny ray of sunshine breaking through the bleak cloud.