Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters Is general practice in trouble?

GP funding formula masks major inequalities for practices in deprived areas

BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7648 (Published 16 December 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7648
  1. Kambiz Boomla, clinical senior lecturer1,
  2. Sally Hull, reader in primary care development1,
  3. John Robson, reader in primary care research and development1
  1. 1Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AB, UK
  1. s.a.hull{at}qmul.ac.uk

Appleby reminds us that general practice funding has fallen to 8% of total NHS spending.1 But his analysis masks the important point that differing population needs greatly affect practice workload.

The 2004 Carr-Hill funding formula had the laudable aim of allocating funds to reflect the workload requirements of each practice population. Reliable data on the workload implications of social deprivation were unavailable, and the resulting formula did not redress the health burden of inequality, as shown …

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