£10m NHS England fund for GP indemnity costs

NHS England has announced plans to help strengthen out-of-hours GP services during the winter period by making £10 million available for indemnity costs.

The NHS England Winter indemnity scheme, which will run from 1 October 2017 until 2 April 2018, means that doctors can commit to more out-of-hours sessions without the need for them to negotiate additional changes to their level of indemnity cover.

Last winter the NHS experienced an increase in demand, with services struggling to cope due to staffing and financial issues. An extra 80,000 GP sessions took place last winter thanks to NHS England’s indemnity scheme, with the health body hoping that the extra funding will enable more to take place this year.

Dr Arvind Madan, GP and NHS England Director of Primary Care, said: “NHS England is taking practical advice to ensure rising indemnity costs don’t stand in the way of GPs being able to support their patients over winter, both during working hours and at evenings and weekends. Further work is underway to produce a long term answer to the issue of indemnity costs.”

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This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

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