DAUK\u2019s GP committee has responded to an announcement by Health Secretary Wes Streeting of \u00a3889m in extra GP funding along with proposed reforms to general practice.\r\n\r\nDr Lizzie Toberty, GP lead for the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK), said: \u201cWe welcome any increase in funding for general practice, however, we are concerned that while this sounds like a lot of money, in reality it is not.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe Government has created a huge problem for general practice by not exempting GP practices from the increase in National Insurance contributions.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt means a huge proportion of this money will be swallowed up meeting the new National Insurance obligations.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn effect, a significant proportion of this money is being recycled through the Treasury, which is not a win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd we remain very concerned about the implications of the ongoing employment of GPs through the additional role reimbursement scheme (ARRS).\r\n\r\n\u201cWe need more detail and are concerned this is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP spokesperson: \u201cWe 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.\r\n\r\n\u201cGPs are now doing 20 per cent more work than before the pandemic \u2013 so we\u2019re doing much more for much less and it needs addressing.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe 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.\r\n\r\n\u201cDepending on reports, there have been between 60 to 300 GPs employed by the scheme to date at huge expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe money would be better spent if it was put into core GP funding.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Alison George, DAUK GP committee member, said: \u201cThe 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.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere 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?\r\n\r\n\u201cFunding 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.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe money needs to be put back into core budgets and let practices employ the GPs they need.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Ellen Welch, DAUK vice chair and a GP, said: \u201cWe have repeatedly called for ARRS funding to be reallocated to restore core GP funding \u2013 and do so again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLord Darzi\u2019s 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.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe billions of pounds being spent on inefficient ARRS that fragment care should be reallocated into core general practice.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe 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.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Sarah Jacques, DAUK GP committee member, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a very uncertain time for practices with many being forced to close or on the brink of closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis 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\u2019 and Dentists\u2019 Remuneration) recommendation for GPs\u2019 rates of pay.\r\n\r\n\u201cWithout those we\u2019re set for another year of defunding.\u201d\r\n\r\nSupport our work by becoming a member<\/a> or donating to our Go Fund Me<\/a>.\r\n\r\nRead more on Mr Streeting’s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DAUK\u2019s GP committee has responded to an announcement by Health Secretary Wes Streeting of \u00a3889m in extra GP funding along with proposed reforms to general…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59,58],"tags":[690,324,658,656,22,61,304,669,333,683],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","category-the-nhs","tag-dr-alison-george","tag-dr-ellen-welch","tag-dr-lizzie-toberty","tag-dr-sarah-jacques","tag-dr-steve-taylor","tag-general-practice","tag-gp-committee","tag-gp-funding","tag-health-secretary","tag-wes-streeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}