Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the socio-economic classification of patients on GP workloads.

As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service to provide primary medical services, it is largely up to general practitioner (GP) practices how they run their surgeries. It is the responsibility of the local NHS to plan, develop and improve health services according to the healthcare needs of the local population.

The global sum allocation formula which underpins capitation payments to general practices is designed to ensure that resources are directed to practices based on an estimate of their patient workload and unavoidable practice costs. These payments include various components, but the main payment is based on the GP-registered patient list size, adjusted through the Carr-Hill Formula to reflect differences in the age and sex composition of the practice’s registered patient list, together with a range of factors that account for the additional pressures generated by deprivation, differential rates of patient turnover, morbidity, mortality and the impact of geographical location. Under this formula, practices whose registered patients have greater healthcare needs are paid more per patient than practices whose registered patients have fewer healthcare needs.

The Government has made several changes to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for GPs to free up time for appointments, including expanding the range of healthcare professionals who can sign fit notes and publishing the bureaucracy busting concordat; seven principles to reduce unnecessary burdens. The expanded primary care teams funded through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme will also add extra clinical capacity.