The government is planning to “bring back the family doctor” by giving GPs an extra £889m to spend time with patients in a bid to end a dispute.
Under proposals for the new GP contract for 2025/26, which is being consulted upon now, GPs would be incentivised to ensure patients most in need see the same doctor every time.
The government said it will provide an extra £889m on top of the existing GP budget to help “slash red tape” so doctors can do their jobs.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said the plan is also to reduce the number of “outdated performance targets” from 76 to 44 so GPs can spend more time with patients.
GPs who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA) are currently in a period of “collective action”, voted on in August, as they say their annual budget increases over the past five years have fallen well below inflation – making it difficult for doctors to meet the rising costs of operating practices – and driving hundreds of surgeries to close.
The doctors can choose which action they take, ranging from withdrawing data-sharing agreements to limiting daily patient contacts to 25, which the BMA says is the recommended safe maximum but is well below how many GPs currently see.
Mr Streeting said he hopes the proposals for next year’s contract, which will be unveiled in the spring, will ensure GPs end their collective action.
Health minister Stephen Kinnock said the extra £889m has come from “moving money around from within the system” and “reprioritisation”.
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Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA’s England GP committee, said the announcement was a “positive starting point for an evolving conversation” and GPs “eagerly await” further details of how the proposals will work.
She added GP practices have been “frantic with worry” about the impact of the “crippling rise” in employers’ national insurance they will have to pay from April after the government increased it at the October budget.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said the £889m is “positive news for patients and the wider NHS” but warned there is a “long road ahead” as the current GP contract is “not fit for purpose” and concerns about the national insurance hike remain.
“We are also pleased to see the focus on ridding GPs of some of the bureaucratic burden that keeps them away from patients, giving practices more flexibility around hiring doctors and nurses, and the impetus on supporting GPs and our teams to deliver continuity of care, which we know has benefits for patients and the NHS alike,” she said.
“But while we hope this package announced today will help stabilise general practice and provide some much-needed certainty for hardworking GPs and our teams, there is a long road ahead.”
Mr Streeting said: “General practice is buckling under the burden of bureaucracy, with GPs filling out forms instead of treating patients. It is clear the system is broken, which is why we are slashing red tape, binning outdated performance targets, and instead freeing doctors up to do their jobs.
“We promised to bring back the family doctor, but we want to be judged by results – not promises. That’s why we will incentivise GPs to ensure more and more patients see the same doctor at each appointment.”
He said the government has already begun hiring an extra 1,000 NHS GPs and called on GPs to “work with us to get the NHS back on its feet and end their collective action”.
