We know, general practice is facing unprecedented and mounting pressure from rising patient demand and widespread staff shortages. A significant extra burden is resulting from inappropriate and unnecessary work being transferred to general practice from secondary care settings. Doctors and...
This guidance is the result of work by a representative, cross-system, stakeholder-led Task and Finish Group,which was asked to look at prescribing across the primary and secondary care interface. At every stage, the ambition behind this important work has been to support prescribers to ensure...
2023/24
NHS England Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES) 2023/24
Practice and PCN Ready Reckoner 2023/224
GP Contract 22/23
Network contract Direct Enhanced Service Indicators and SNOMED codes - This tool provides a list of SNOMED codes for each indicator which are used to...
GP partners vote for collected action
GP partners/contractors in England voted overwhelmingly in favour of collective action. Seven in ten eligible members voted in the non-statutory ballot, with an overwhelming 98.3% of members voting yes, indicating that they are willing to take action to...
The DH commissioned from the Law Society a comprehensive guide to the law relating to deprivation of liberty safeguards. This has a helpful section on care homes and other health settings.
Full Guidance
Eye Casualty - GP Emergency same day referrals can be sent via the following routes.
Patient is sent to eye casualty with the physical referral letter. Please note that the eye clinic is not a walk in clinic and patients are only directed to it if that is the outcome of the triage by our...
Please see the following advice leaflet from the RCOG concerning fitness to fly during pregnancy.
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/patients/patient-information-leaflets/pregnancy/air-travel-pregnancy.pdf
There is no statutory requirement for GPs to complete the airline form for...
Background
As part of the 2013/14 contract imposition, the Government in England planned far-reaching changes to practice funding to reduce the wide variation in funding per patient between practices. Practices with above average levels of funding as a result of GMS correction factor payments...
The global sum allocation formula, or Carr-Hill Formula, has been used as the basis of core funding for GMS practices since the inception of the new GMS contract in 2004. This short explanatory paper has been produced now because the allocation formula is newly relevant to many GP practices. See...
NHS Digital have now published a GDPR guidance note . This guidance is from the national GDPR working group and Information Governance Alliance and will help organisations to make the changes needed due to the implementation of the GDPR in May 2018
The GPC IT committee lead Dr Paul Cundy who a...
This is a two year programme of support available to all newly qualified GPs and nurses working in general practice. This fellowship is part of NHS Long Term Plan Commitment to aid primary care workforce recruitment and retention. It is a national scheme with regional variations. Somerset GP...
NHS England published the General Practice Forward View in April this year. It set out a plan, backed by a multi-billion pound investment, to stabilise and transform general practice.
It includes practical and funded actions in five areas; investment, workforce, workload, infrastructure and...
Getting ready for patients to have access to their future data
NHS Digital - General practice readiness checklist
This link will take you to a general practice readiness checklist for to use to ensure you are prepared for the upcoming changes of providing prospective (future) access to all...
October 2024
GP Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS)
The updated PCN DES bringing in the GP ARRS was released last week. GPs employed via the Scheme must be within 2 years of their CCT on 1/10/24 and PCNs will be required to provide terms no less favourable than the BMA salaried GP...
General practice is one of the most important and respected institutions in our communities; it is the foundation of the NHS. It has been credited as a major reason for the NHS being one of the most cost-effective models of healthcare, outperforming many countries in the Western world which...
The Local Medical Committees (LMCs) of Cornwall, Somerset and Devon have collaborated with the South-West peninsula Clinical Oversight Group to produce guidance for GP practices and care homes in relation to the contractual framework expected of GPs providing GP medical services to care homes....
The following guidance is based on information contained in 'Quality first: Managing workload to deliver safe patient care', available on the BMA website at:
https://www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/gp-practices/quality-first
Formal list closure
GMS and PMS practices can apply formally to...
Green Impact For Health
The Green Impact for Health project has been developed for General Practice by the National Union of Students, GPs, trainees, and medical students. It's supported by University of Bristol, NHS Health Education South West and the Severn Faculty of the RCGP. The web-based...
This guidance is intended to help practices to ensure the safe provision of core services to patients, while fulfilling their professional duty and contractual obligations. GMS and PMS practices in circumstances of unmanageable workload demands, may need to take steps to safely control their...
Our thanks to Humberside Group of Local Medical Committees Ltd for sharing this useful Document
A practice Guide to funding and support for General practice
Locum reimbursement for parental leave (maternity, paternity & adoption)
Eligibility
When a salaried GP or GP partner is absent from the practice due to a period of parental leave (maternity/paternity/adoption) the practice is eligible to receive funding towards the cost of cover for that...
MORE ACCURATE GENERAL PRACTICE APPOINTMENT DATA (GPAD): WE NEED YOUR HELP full document
General practice should record all appointments in their appointment system.
Does your practice do this?
The largest and most comprehensive data repository of patient data in the world is held in British...
The 2017/18 NHS standard contract for secondary care trusts came into force on 1 April 2017. The NHS standard contract for secondary care trusts has placed new requirements on hospitals to reduce inappropriate bureaucratic workload shift onto GP practices.
Many of those changes to the standard...
NHS England has published a guide containing support to general practice to make sure that at least 25% of their appointments are available to book online. It covers a full list of the types of appointments to include, important things to consider and configuration hint and tips.
Online Access...
Online Access to Digital GP Record 2019/20 contract
Joint BMA and NHSE statement Online access
The General Medical Services (GMS) and Personal Medical Services (PMS) contracts (2014/15) include the requirement for general practices to offer and promote to patients: online appointment...
Practice and Primary Care Network (PCN) income ready reckoner for 2024
As in previous years, this ready reckoner has been produced by NHS England in partnership with the GPC - and is intended to provide an indication of the changes in income streams that may affect a GMS practice and Primary...
GP practices will be aware that, from 1 April 2015, it is a contractual requirement for practices to publish on their practice website by the end of the financial year (ie 31 March 2016) the mean earnings for all GPs in their practice relating to the previous financial year (ie...
The BMA's England GP committee (GPCE) has generated the following guide to enable practices to prioritise safe patient care, within the present bounds of the GMS contract.
Safe working in general practice
Call To action Protect patients protect your GP Practice
Pushing back on inappropriate...
Read the full paper here
General practice is in crisis, with a marked increase in workload at a time of underinvestmentand a shortage of GPs. Demand will continue to grow due to an aging population and it isessential that GPs are able to protect themselves and their patients from excessive...
The traditional model of general practice is under pressure, as momentum builds to provide integrated care services at scale.
Against the backdrop of rising demand and diminishing resources, many practices are left in a vulnerable position, creating an impetus to take forward new ways of...
Briefing: Somerset Practice Quality Scheme; a framework for innovation
1 Purpose
1.1 To explain the context and contents of the local GP quality scheme pilot in Somerset. The pilot is an alternative approach to the Quality and Outcomes Framework element of the General Medical Services...
This evidence paper accompanies the SPQS proposal and sets out the evidence and rationale for the proposal. It briefly summarises the development of QOF, the criticisms of QOF and why we think SPQS might deliver better value for patients, clinicians and commissioners.
The development of QOF
It...
Beyond the immediate clinical need of a patient - if a patient is declared dead on the premises how should you proceed?
If the death is sudden and unexpected you will need to contact the coroner via the police. The police will arrange for transport of the body from your site - the coroner may...
Updated Technical Requirements and Coding Documents for 2019-20
Please be advised that the Technical Requirements for 2019-20 have been updated and now include information for the Network Contract DES, 2019/20 Dementia Data Collection, National Diabetes Audit 2019-20, Childhood Seasonal Flu and...
The Primary Care Digital Operating Model 2019–21 (previously known as the GP IT Operating Model) has been published. It covers the policies, standards and operating procedures that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are obliged to work to and support the provision of digital requirements under...
This guide will help you to agree quantitative limits to individual safe practice for GPs. Appropriate limits on workload will depend on the unique circumstances of each practice the contractual status and the preferences of each individual GP, as well as the complexity of care being provided....
