£810m revamp of GP services underway

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NHS Reform leads to some GPs providing Saturday appointments

Certain practices will be expected to merge or federate in order to offer routine opening times on Saturdays. They will provide flexible appointment lengths as part of London local area team’s £810m a year bid to improve and reshape general practice in the capital.

The NHS England (London) ‘transformation framework’ – led by former RCGP chair Professor Clare Gerada, who is currently chair of Primary Care Clinical Board at the new local area team- encourages practices in London to gradually move towards a range of new services commencing in April, 2015. This is the first clear indication of how local area teams will be implementing NHS England’s recently published ‘Five Year Forward View’.

The changes will incentivise practices to merge as ‘Multispecialty Community Providers’ (MCPs), which will provide a range of enhanced services and could lead to some providers voluntarily opting out of the national GMS contract.

The reshaping of general practice on the NHS has been met with ambivalence, with some experts feeling it will promote even more target-based work rather than produce high quality care whereas other experts feel it is exactly what is needed to improve general practice.