Smaller practices less likely to receive resilience funding

Analysing NHS England data, GP website Pulse has revealed that small practices are least likely to receive NHS England resilience funding.

Of all practices that received cash from the £16m of the General Practice Resilience Programme allocated in 2016/17, only seven per cent served populations of fewer than 3,000 patients, with practices of that size making up approximately 10 per cent of all practices in England.

Separate data shows that the 76 per cent of practices that closed in 2016 and 2017 were small, with a similar trend between 2013 and 2015. In fact, in 2016 and 2017 a total of 81 small practices had to shut their doors, but over the same period just 22 medium-sized practices and three large practices were forced to close. This has raised questions over the role of the resilience fund, with GP leaders claiming that the figures suggest that NHS England is supporting larger vulnerable practices ahead of smaller ones.

Dr Matt Mayer, the British Medical Association’s GP Committee regional representative, said: “These statistics are deeply concerning. The fact that much-needed resilience funding is least likely to get to those practices that need it most illustrates that the GP Forward View is not fit for purpose, and is simply window dressing.”