New GP contract to end automatic pay rises

15 Nov 13
Automatic pay rises for older doctors are to be phased out and savings re-invested in general practice under changes to the GP contract, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today.

By Vivienne Russell | 15 November 2013

Automatic pay rises for older doctors are to be phased out and savings re-invested in general practice under changes to the GP contract, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today.

Seniority payments, which cost the NHS £80m or around £6,000 per doctor, will be closed to new entrants from April 2014 and phased out completely by the end of March 2020.

However, doctors’ leader said the move could encourage more GPs to take early retirement.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: ‘We recognise that the government has expressed a determination to phase out age-related pay progression across the public sector, and we remain concerned at how the removal of seniority will affect GP retention.’

Hunt announced the contract changes with the promise that they would bring back the ‘old-fashioned family doctor’. In particular four million elderly patients are to be assigned a dedicated GP, personally responsible for all aspects of their care at all times.

The contract will also usher in greater transparency over practices’ earnings and performance and increased patients choice, allowing practices to recruit patients from beyond traditional boundaries.

Hunt said: ‘The 2004 GP contract broke the personal link between GP and patient. It piled target after target on doctors, took away their responsibility for out-of-hours care and put huge pressure on our accident and emergency departments.

‘We are bringing back named GPs for the vulnerable elderly. This means proper family doctors, able to focus on giving elderly people the care they need and prevent unnecessary trips to hospital.’

Among GPs’ new responsibilities are the offer of same-day telephone consultations, co-ordinating care for elderly patients discharged from A&E and monitoring and reporting on the quality of out-of-hours care.

In return, GPs will be required to meet fewer targets from the Quality Outcomes Framework and given more flexibility on how they treat and manage patients with specific conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

‘The money GPs currently earn from meeting these targets will instead be pumped into overall budgets and enhanced services,’ the Department of Health said.

At the BMA, Nagpaul welcomed the commitment on targets. ‘This will not only free up GPs to spend more time focusing on treating patients, but will also mean that valuable resources will be reinvested in general practice to improve frontline care,’ he said.

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the council of the Royal College of GPs, said the contract changes would help family doctors get back to the ‘real job’ of providing care where it was most needed.

‘It is not the remit of the college to get involved in contractual negotiations, but we have been calling for this for three years and are pleased that the government and the BMA have been able to reach a solution that is workable for doctors and, more importantly, focuses our time on improving the care that out patients want and deserve,’ she said.

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