GMS Formula Review: report to plenary and the Departments of Health in England and Wales - Summary of Consultation - 10 Sept '07

Immediate release : 10 September 2007
Joint Press Release : NHS Employers and BMA publish findings of GMS formula consultation
Report Document

NHS Employers and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee today (10 September 2007) publish a joint report on the outcome of the consultation on the review of the global sum allocation formula for practice funding.

The report follows a three month consultation to seek the views of GPs, Primary Care Organisations and other stakeholders on a number of proposals to change the formula. It is the result of over 18 months of work in which the Formula Review Group (FRG) conducted a detailed examination of all factors in the current General Practice funding formula and investigated a number of additional factors for possible inclusion in a revised formula.

The FRG’s report will now be submitted to the health departments who will consider if, how and when they wish to see the recommendations of the formula review group taken forward.   The GPC and NHS Employers will then discuss next steps.
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Monday 10 September 2007 - GPC comment on FRG consultation GPC Chairman Dr Laurence Buckman said, “The FRG has worked hard to produce a fair report.  In the present financial and political climate, it is clear that a very large minority of GPs (48%) do not want to proceed to implementing its findings at the moment.  Only 29% of GP respondents were in favour of implementation. There were always going to be some practices that might lose,  but the numbers of losers and the amount of resource they might lose would have a deleterious impact on patient care.

"It is sad that primary care managers do not see how damaging these proposals will be for patients and practices, if unsupported by the necessary resources."

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