Jeremy Hunt General Practice Forward View

 

HOUSE OF COMMONS

LONDON SW1A 0AA

 

21 April 2016

 

Dear Colleague,

 

General Practice is the jewel in the crown of our NHS and supporting it is at the heart of the government’s commitment to a high quality, seven day health service. So today we announced a multi-billion pound plan to deliver our manifesto promises and the Five Year Forward View. Implementing the New Deal for General Practice, which I set out in a speech last year, the “General Practice Forward View” offers concrete steps and investment to support GPs, improve quality and access, and invest in new ways of providing patient care.

 

Enabled by our £10 billion investment in the NHS, this plan delivers our manifesto promises of high quality care and dignity in old age while improving access to services for working people across seven days. In doing so it provides vital support to our hardworking doctors, with whom we have been able to work constructively to put the plan together. On funding, workforce, access, bureaucracy and infrastructure, this roadmap contains a number of practical and funded steps towards a high quality, 21^st century service for patients, including:

 

• Investing in primary care - The NHS will earmark an extra £2.4 billion a year for GP services by 2020/21. This means spending will rise from £9.6 billion in 2016/17 to over £12 billion by 2021 - a 14 percent real terms increase. This investment will be supplemented by a £500 million Sustainability and Transformation package to help GP practices add to the workforce and tackle workload, and additional funds from local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

 

• Building the workforce - We will deliver 5,000 more doctors working in general practice by 2020 through new incentives for training, recruitment, retention and return to practice. In addition, we’ll deliver 3000 new fully funded practice-based mental health therapists, an extra 1,500 co-funded practice clinical pharmacists, and nationally funded support for practice nurses, physician assistants, practice managers and receptionists.

 

• Improving access - This package will enable delivery of our 7 day NHS commitment, providing evening and weekend appointments to all patients by 2020, through practical support for surgeries to work together in groups and federations, investment in new technologies, and direct funding for improved in-hours and out-of-hours access. A new voluntary GP contract will support integrated primary and community health services with 7 day and weekend access at its core. 

 

• Cutting bureaucracy - The plan sets out a new practice resilience programme to support struggling practices, changes to streamline the Care Quality Commission inspection regime, legal limits on administration and paperwork at the hospital/GP interface, support for GPs suffering from burnout and stress, plus action to cut inappropriate demand on general practice through supporting self-care and better use of other clinical skills.

 

• Investing in infrastructure - Our £1billion Primary Care Transformation Fund will deliver GP premises fit for the future and investment to support better technologies such as online tools and appointment booking, with up to £45 million extra to support online consultation systems and other modern working practices. 

 

We remain the true party of the NHS – committed to preserving its values, showing real leadership for patients, and supporting the NHS with the reform and funding it needs, including in general practice. As ever, I am grateful for your continued support and remain happy to assist in any way I can.

 

Yours ever,

Rt Hon JEREMY HUNT MP

Secretary of State for Health