National Health Service (NHS) England Chief Executive Simon Stevens has presented a major package of measures to bolster GP practices in the face of rising demand for care and acute pressures. The plan outlines an increase in the budget for England’s GP practices by an extra £2.4 billion ($USD 3.1 billion) to over £12 billion a year by 2020 to pay for the reforms. Highlights include:
- Double the number of trainee GPs recruited, increasing the workforce by 5,000 over the next five years
- An additional 3,000 mental health therapists and 1,500 additional pharmacists in primary care practices
- £45 million to support Web-based specialist consultation systems for every practice
- New investment of £171 million ($USD 220 million) in support of care redesign and practice transformation, on top of £500 million ($USD 644 million) in current funding, and
- Changes in contracts so that hospitals will be banned from shifting work to GPs.