GPC deputy chairman Dr Richard Vautrey said the management allowance revealed by in the NHS Operating Framework was a ‘gross figure' which would have to cover a whole variety of additional costs.
‘The funding in the operating framework is a gross figure; it is not net. It includes a whole variety of costs such as infrastructure,’ he said.
‘What is left [to run the consortia] will be much, much less than that headline figure. We mustn’t assume we will have that much.’
Dr Vautrey said the £2 per patient offered to consortia for GP back-fill was a relatively small amount of money that ‘compares to what we received in the old practice-based commissioning DES.’
The DoH appears to have 'largely ignored' the BMA and the GPC’s detailed responses to the White Paper consultation, said Dr Vautrey.
Parts of the country are ‘in chaos’ as PCTs have been told they must merge into clusters at the same time as develop GP consortia and make massive efficiency savings.
‘We now have two NHS reorganisations,’ said Dr Vautrey.
The GPC, meeting today, hopes that this year’s GP contract negotiations will be completed by mid-January.
Dr Vautrey assured GPs the 2011/12 contract will remain largely unchanged apart from QOF and would not include clauses relating to GP commissioning.
Real management funding will be much less than £35 DoH figure
The GPC has warned that the amount of money available for GPs to run consortia will be 'much, much less' than the £25-35 per patient figure revealed by the DoH yesterday.
