Dr Jacques highlights the difficult balancing act of supporting valued team members and maintaining the financial sustainability of practices against a backdrop of rising employment costs and limited contract funding.

Writing a blog for Nursing in Practice, Dr Jacques said: “The challenge for partners is not a lack of willingness to reward staff, but the financial pressures practices are currently under.”

General practice funding

Dr Jacques’s blog examines the realities behind pay decisions, the impact of the 2026/27 contract settlement, and why wider reform of general practice funding is essential if practice nurses are to receive equitable and competitive pay.

She said: “Ultimately, the issue of practice nurse pay cannot be separated from the wider funding model for general practice.

Read Dr Jacques’s blog for Nursing in Practice.

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Dr Steve Taylor was speaking to Pulse after new figures revealed the money spent on primary care in the past decade by NHS England and ICBs.

The data, Pulse reported, showed that ‘primary care consistently received one of the lowest shares of funding’.

Underfunded primary care

Dr Taylor said: “Successive governments have underfunded primary care and in particular GP services.

“These figures demonstrate what is seen week by week with issues of access to services.

“These figures demonstrate government would be better off spending NHS funding on community services rather than gimmicks.

“There are 6,300 neighbourhood centres already in walking distance of 80% of people – GP practices.”

Read the Pulse article in full.

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Unemployed GPs

He said: “The biggest problem is we don’t have the capacity for all the requests and needs of patients. “GP practices have effectively had a 20 per cent funding cut over the past eight or nine years, which means there are currently unemployed GPs or GPs doing less work than they would otherwise do if the funding was there. “We could have a lot more access to GPs if the funding was made available. “The Government has talked about moving care from hospitals into the community, but the money has to be there so we can employ some of those GPs. “I’m campaigning to get more money into general practice.

Access to GPs

“I would love to see more access to GPs.” Dr Taylor was discussing new figures which showed a third (33.3%) of GP appointments in England were carried out on the phone or online. According to new analysis of NHS England data by the PA news agency, the figure was up from 30.9% in June 2024, and 28.3% in June 2023. Dr Taylor said the figures did not show that the total number of appointments in each year has also risen. “You’ve got a bigger proportion that are not face-to-face,” he said. “But actually, you’ve also got more face-to-face appointments in GP surgeries up and down the country.

GP appointments

“I’m not entirely sure what the problem is with telephone and e-consults anyway. “I have been a GP for 30 years, and we’ve adapted to people’s needs over that time. “I’m also a patient. I’ve had two telephone consultations with my GP in the past two weeks, which were entirely appropriate. “There’s two pictures. The first is that face-to-face appointments aren’t falling off, they’re actually going up every year. “Secondly, telephone and e-consults are also going up and are good, so I’m not sure what the issue is.” Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder or by becoming a member.

Spending review

“If that funding is inadequate then it should not be celebrated. “For example, the 1,700 new GPs the Chancellor mentioned are not full-time equivalent numbers. “It’s fewer than 1,000 FTE – and most of these are in non-substantive roles across a number of practices. “There are still thousands of GPs unable to find work. This will only increase in August with a new cohort. “Context is key. The 3.5 million extra appointments is less than three days’ work for GP practices. “Social care is not being funded and with thousands of patients stuck in hospitals awaiting care packages or placements, or people in need leading to health problems, this cannot be ignored. “Genuine honesty is required from our political leaders. The spin implies all is well. It’s far from it.” Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder or by becoming a member.

Issues facing general practice

“The Institute for Government report again highlights the issues facing general practice, while highlighting what works well,” he said. “There are too few GPs and too few GPs taking up positions as partners. “This is despite clear evidence that more GPs and GP partnerships improve patient care, outcomes, and quality. “Smaller practices are shown to be better overall.” Writing for GP Online earlier this week, Dr Taylor urged the Government to general practice directly to allow them to recruit GPs of any experience.

Government investment

Now he has renewed DAUK’s calls for sustained Government investment in general practice. He said: “DAUK’s GP committee again calls for Wes Streeting, NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care to invest in GP practices. “There is a clear consensus GP to patient ratios need to be improved. The only way to do this is to fund practices to employ, retain and recruit GPs. “We believe setting an initial limit of 3,000 patients per GP, with investment and incentives, will reverse 15 years of decline in GP numbers.

Sticking plaster

“The emergency strategy of adding ARRS GPs is merely a sticking plaster on a gaping wound. The wound is GP practice funding is harming patient care.” Read the Institute for Government report. Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder or by becoming a member.

NHS investment

Describing the NHS as the country’s ‘jewel in the crown’, Dr Welch highlighted the lack of investment in the service, and in primary care in particular, as being an issue behind public dissatisfaction. She wrote: “… we can’t have a sparkling jewel in our crown if the tiara we are wearing comes from Poundland.” Read Dr Welch’s blog on LBC.co.uk. Meanwhile, Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK’s GP spokesperson, has been speaking in the media about requirements for ICBs to set up ‘interface groups’ to oversee the expansion of advice and guidance.

Primary care

Speaking to GPonline, Dr Taylor said the groups were a welcome move and strong primary care representation was needed. He said: “It’s important to have a strong GP voice in those groups, otherwise they could just create downward pressure on GPs not to refer. “It needs to be equal, with GP representation from people who are working within the system currently and who have the ear of local GPs to state clearly to the hospital trust what the problems are.” Read the GPonline article in full. Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder or by becoming a member.

GP employment

“And we remain very concerned about the implications of the ongoing employment of GPs through the additional role reimbursement scheme (ARRS). “We need more detail and are concerned this is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.” Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP spokesperson: “We cautiously welcome the extra funding, but it fails to address the fact that general practice has had a 20 per cent real terms cut in funding per patient over the past eight years. “GPs are now doing 20 per cent more work than before the pandemic – so we’re doing much more for much less and it needs addressing. “The additional role reimbursement scheme (ARRS) GP recruitment programme is failing to meet the needs of underemployed GPs, particularly those looking for the security of permanent jobs in practices. “Depending on reports, there have been between 60 to 300 GPs employed by the scheme to date at huge expense.

GP funding

“The money would be better spent if it was put into core GP funding.” Dr Alison George, DAUK GP committee member, said: “The concern is that the Department for Health is trying to employ more GPs through ARRS, effectively making them employed by the government on low pay and poor working conditions. “There are around 3,500 full-time equivalent GPs available to work now. Why would the government refuse to fund jobs for them but continue to fund approximately 2,000 physician associates (PAs) in general practice? “Funding GPs, who can give patients holistic care, is the best use of the ARRS funds for PAs and will keep more patients out of hospital. “The money needs to be put back into core budgets and let practices employ the GPs they need.” Dr Ellen Welch, DAUK vice chair and a GP, said: “We have repeatedly called for ARRS funding to be reallocated to restore core GP funding – and do so again.

Darzi review

“Lord Darzi’s review pointed out GPs are the most financially disciplined part of the NHS, and we have the unbelievable situation where thousands of GPs are unemployed or underemployed. “The billions of pounds being spent on inefficient ARRS that fragment care should be reallocated into core general practice. “We need to be able to use our budgets to meet the needs of our patients and communities, and to increase GP numbers for safer ratios of patients to doctors.” Dr Sarah Jacques, DAUK GP committee member, said: “It’s a very uncertain time for practices with many being forced to close or on the brink of closure.

National Insurance contributions

“This money will all be eroded unless the government fully reimburses GPs for the increased National Insurance contributions and we see an uplift in the DDRB (the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration) recommendation for GPs’ rates of pay. “Without those we’re set for another year of defunding.” Support our work by becoming a member or donating to our Go Fund Me. Read more on Mr Streeting’s announcement.

That was the message today from DAUK’s GP lead Dr Lizzie Toberty in a front-page interview with a national newspaper.

Dr Toberty was speaking to i News about a pledge by health secretary Wes Streeting during the general election that Labour would allow patients to easily book appointments to see the doctor they want, in the manner they choose”.

She said that in order to match funding levels from a decade ago, general practice needed at least another £35 per year, per patient.

“That’s less than £3 a month, less than a price of a coffee. And we have evidence from The King’s Fund that people are willing to pay a little bit more tax to have better healthcare,” she said.

Read the i News article in full.

Dr Toberty’s comments have also been reported in the Independent, the Guardian, and in regional newspapers including the Express and Star. And the article was also discussed in the newspaper review on Sky News.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Dr Toberty added: “Let’s be clear … the problems of the ‘8am scramble’ are not insurmountable. Just fund core general practice.”

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