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With general practice at a crossroads, Practice Index podcast regulars Robyn Clark and Claire Houston join Ben to assess the financial hurdles presented within the latest GP contract. The 2% funding increase is a drop in the ocean against towering inflation and the uptick in the national living wage could well see a situation whereby practices are unable to hire or replace departing staff, calling into question, once again, the issue of sustainability.

We consider newer directives linked to capacity and access such as telephony, online consultations, and care navigation systems and probe the effectiveness of the Integrated Care Board payments – and the Quality and Outcomes Framework – questioning their impact on an already stretched thin resource pool.

Don’t miss this episode for a frank and insightful examination of the state of general practice right now, with our expert practice management panel guiding the conversation.

Introduction (00:09)

Welcoming the panel (00:39)

Funding implications (00:52)

An unrealistic uplift against the economic reality (02:12)

Impact on practices (03:06)

Government response and continuing uncertainty (03:48)

Complications with budget-setting (05:38)

Advice from Clare when planning ahead (06:49)

Debating the QOF changes (07:53)

Changes related to vaccs and imms (09:46)

Scrapping the IIF in favour of capacity and access (10:32)

Achieving the 30% (12:33)

National extraction of demand data (14:25)

A new “registration solution” (17:03)

Merging the PCN DES spec and ARRS (17:55)

The future of general practice taskforce (20:48)

GP referendum (21:55)

Final thoughts (23:47)

The importance of standing together (24:40)

To visit the Practice Index website, click here or contact James Dillon here.

For all enquiries about the Ockham podcast, please contact Ben Gowland here.