Funding for GP services is set to rise by 25% between 2015/16 and 2020/21 after the government agreed to increase NHS funding in England by £10bn a year by the end of the parliament.
NHS England revealed in its commissioning funding allocations published on Thursday that GP funding will rise by at least 4% a year over the period as part of the NHS’s commitment to implementing the Five Year Forward View including new care models.
GP funding will rise by £1.8bn over five years from £7.3bn in 2015/16 to £9.2bn in 2020/21, although the final two years’ figures are indicative.
GP funding
If implemented the proposed allocations would see general practice’s share of overall NHS funding in England rise from 7.3% today to 7.7% by the end of the period.
The RCGP has called on government to increase general practice’s share of the overall budget to the 11% level it was at a decade ago.
The college has called for £3.8bn a year more to fund workforce and infrastructure investment as well as patient services.
However, practices could also benefit from some of the new funding for CCGs which will rise from £69bn in 2015/16 to £79bn in 2020/21.
NHS England revealed that it had changed the funding formula used to allocate GP funding. Commissioners included new estimates of stratified workload per patient data in the Carr-Hill formula calculation.
The change will only affect the formula used to allocate the general practice budget rather than practice payments, but officals said work to take better account of deprivation in the formula continued and eventually the two versions would have to be synchronised.
