Intended for healthcare professionals

Careers

GP access pilots must not be a waste of NHS funds, says BMA

BMJ 2014; 348 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g2763 (Published 14 April 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g2763
  1. Abi Rimmer
  1. 1BMJ Careers

The government’s GP access fund pilot must be properly evaluated to ensure it represents an appropriate use of NHS resources, the BMA has said.

The Department of Health for England has announced that 1147 general practices in England will receive funding as part of the access pilot. A £50m fund has been developed to increase access to primary care, and the pilots aim to offer schemes such as seven day opening and 8 am to 8 pm opening to 7.5 million patients.

Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee, said the initiative would enable GPs to test ways of improving access, but that it must be properly evaluated. “These pilots will give some GPs the opportunity and resources to test ways of improving access, use of technology, and extend their opening times in areas where it is felt there is demand from local patients,” he said. “However, as pilots, it is important that these are independently evaluated to ensure they are a responsible use of stretched NHS funds.”

He said that practices should be able to tailor their opening hours to the needs of their patients and warned that there were no assurances that the one year pilot would be continued. He also pointed out that around 7000 practices would not receive any funding through the pilot to improve patient access or maintain current services.

“It is vital that we have a long term plan in place to help support all GP practices to deliver appropriate care to their patients,” he said. “We must also make sure that finite NHS resources are directed to where they are truly needed.”

The health department also announced that 800 000 patients, mostly aged over 75, would be enrolled onto a Transforming Primary Care programme of “proactive, personalised care in the community.” The changes, part of the 2014-15 GP contract, will mean patients have a named GP responsible for their care and access to same day GP services when they need it, the health department said.1

Nagpaul welcomed these changes but warned that delivering more personalised care to vulnerable patients needed to be backed by investment in a range of patient services and general practice.

“The government must take further action so that community, social, and urgent care work in tandem to deliver truly holistic care to patients,” he said. “Ministers must also deliver on their commitment to increase resources in the community so that there are more GPs, nurses and other health and social care services to provide coordinated care to the escalating number of patients who need care closer to home. This will enable GPs to be properly supported and have the time and ability to deliver the personalised care that patients deserve.”

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