£660 million lost

Can it really be true that GP Practices have lost funding worth over £660 million over the last 5 years? The answer is a resounding “YES”!

The main reason for this funding loss is that GP contracts have just not been uplifted to keep pace with inflation. The effect over time is a significant reduction in the funding to treat our patients.

New GP contracts should be negotiated each year with the profession, but over the last 3-years, negotiations have been unsuccessful and contracts have been imposed.

New money has been put into the NHS, but it hasn’t been put into General Practice. This has meant that the overall amount of money spent on General Practice as a percentage of total NHS spend is now lower than for many previous years.   Your General Practice receives only 6% of NHS funding for providing more than 90% of patient contacts.

We try very hard to do the best that we can in such a challenging environment, but we are hugely frustrated because we could do so much more if the system funded your practice as it should.

It does not need to be like this.

Practices need to be given adequate funding to provide the care which our communities deserve.  It may well be something that you wish to discuss with your new MP after the election, as to how they might change this situation.