This month's GPC News said: ‘We believe the best course of action now is to focus on constructing an eSFE that could be used from 2010/11 onwards if necessary.

‘We appreciate that there have been pockets of real difficulty across the UK this year during the pandemic but we hope that our decision to put on hold this work now will be understood in the context of the currently mild pandemic.

‘In the unlikely event that the pandemic suddenly worsens before April 2010, we believe we have done enough work on the eSFE to resurrect it rapidly.'

The GPC has worked with NHS Employers over several months to try to create an eSFE.

GPC News added: ‘The prospect of introducing an eSFE designed for income protection has always had a range of drawbacks and operational difficulties; for example practices would not have improvements in directed enhanced services or quality framework reflected in their payments under an eSFE and neighbouring practices would almost certainly need to move to an eSFE together regardless of how they experience the pandemic.'