'Overwhelming' take up of new primary care network contract

Almost all GP practices in England have signed up to the new Primary Care Network (PCN) contract for the next year.

The new contract will help build on the success of PCNs, which have been in operation for nearly a year in some areas. Approximately 7,000 practices across England came together to form 1,250 PCNs. The 98 per cent uptake reflects support for PCNs which are helping improve care for patients across the country.

NHS England says that millions of patients across the country will continue to benefit from additional action to spot cancer early, joined up care for patients with chronic disease, extra NHS support for care homes residents and easier access to medication reviews due to the additional investment in family doctors and their teams.

The PCN contract for next year means that GP practices in England will receive an annual share of half a billion pounds extra investment to employ more staff and deliver more services in or near to people’s homes – a total investment of £1.4 billion by 23/24 to help deliver an extra 26,000 workforce roles.

Primary care has been at the forefront of the NHS response to coronavirus pandemic and has accelerated the transformation of services first set out in the NHS Long Term Plan last year.

The new agreement between GPs and the NHS will deliver improved care for patients, including: additional support for care home residents; more clinical pharmacists; and improved early cancer diagnosis.

Doctors, nurses, and frontline clinicians will benefit with increased numbers of staff in general practice. As part of the reformed Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, NHS England and NHS Improvement will reimburse 100 per cent staff salaries of ten additional general practice roles such as clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, physician associates, dieticians and health and well-being coaches to help provide patients with the care they need by an appropriate specialist.

Nikki Kanani, NHS medical director for primary care, said:“Many have already benefited from improved care thanks to the commitment of general practice staff to work in collaboration locally: people get the care they need with the right professional, and clinicians such as GPs get greater support and increased numbers of frontline staff working in practices.

“The determination from everyone to put general practice on a stronger footing so that it can deliver the services patients need has been extremely encouraging – we benefited from extensive engagement with the proposals on this and I’m pleased that we can now move forward together and deliver on our shared goals to provide extra support for practices that need it, large or small. I’d like to thank all general practice staff for their hard work to get primary care to this point.”

Ruth Rankine, director of the NHS Confederation’s PCN Network, added: “This is great news for primary care and for patients. PCNs are absolutely key to delivering the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan, ensuring that patients, irrespective of where they live, get access to the same services whilst giving PCNs the flexibility to respond to the needs of their local population.”