NHS England revealed on Tuesday that CCGs could be expected to provide additional funds for services to support GPs’ new accountable clinician responsibilities, and that this funding could increase in future years if schemes prove succesful in reducing hospital admissions.
Under the agreement struck last month, from April all patients over 75 will be assigned a named GP to co-ordinate their care.
Draft planning guidance for CCGs presented to Tuesday's NHS England board meeting revealed: ‘CCGs will be expected to support practices in transforming the care of patients aged 75 or older and reducing avoidable admissions by providing funding for practice plans to do so.
'They will be expected to provide additional funding to commission additional services which practices, individually or collectively, have identified will further support the accountable GP in improving quality of care for older people. This funding should be at around £5 per head of population for each practice. Practice plans should be complementary to initiatives through the Better Care Fund.'
GPs will be able to ask CCGs to invest the additional funding in services directly commissioned from practices if they 'go beyond what is required in the GP contract and the new enhanced service'.
Or they can ask for funding to be directed at improving 'other community services to secure integration with primary care provision'.
The guidance adds: 'Practices should have the confidence that, where these initial investment plans successfully reduce emergency admissions, it will be possible to maintain and potentially increase this investment on a recurrent basis.'
