GPs can now bid for a share of £100m in the second wave of The Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund, improving access to GP services for patients. From today, practices are eligible to bid against the fund by working with peers to develop proposals for improving and extending patient access to services. Priority will be given to […]

The Care.Data Programme closed in 2016 GP-led clinical commissioning groups in four areas of the country are to help develop the care.data programme as it moves into a ‘pathfinder stage’. The programme will be rolled out in participating GP surgeries in the CCG areas of Leeds North, West and South and East, Somerset, West Hampshire and […]

NHS England is today welcoming changes to the national GP contract from April 2015. The changes follow agreement between NHS Employers, on behalf of NHS England, and the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee (GPC). Dame Barbara Hakin, National Director for Commissioning Operations at NHS England, said: “Having been a GP, I know how central primary care […]

More than half of patients (51 per cent) were aware of their legal right to choose a hospital or clinic for an outpatient appointment, and a similar proportion (53 per cent) referred for an outpatient appointment first had a discussion with their GP about where to receive treatment. Fewer than two fifths of patients, however, […]

A milestone 40 million patients now have a Summary Care Record and health professionals are using them to improve and speed up patient care every 30 seconds. NHS England is delighted by the achievement and is now focusing on rolling it out in A&E, NHS 111, and GP out-of-hours services. Usage of the SCR is […]

Tim Kelsey, NHS England’s National Director for Patients and Information, has today spoken about how a new, forward-thinking style of leadership is liberating patients and staff. In an article for Guardian Society online, he writes about a recent visit to the Hurley Group GP health centre based in the heart of London’s Olympic village which […]

NHS England is to launch a new pilot scheme that aims to help general practitioners assess the care and support needs of people with long-term conditions. A new assessment tool, known as patient activation, is designed to help GPs put people with long-term conditions at the centre of the care and support they receive. It […]

More than seven million patients across the country will benefit from innovative pilot schemes trialing improvements to GP access, funded by the £50m Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund. Twenty GP collaborations were successful in their bids to the fund and have been awarded investment to run pilots for a year. The Challenge Fund has created great […]

NHS England has today (3 April) outlined plans for how more than £230 million in funding will be used to ensure all GP practices across England have high-quality IT systems. Set out in an updated operating model for 2014-16, ‘Securing Excellence in GP IT Services’ (document available on our archived website), the plans aim to […]

NHS England has published our emerging findings report on a future strategy for commissioning general practice services. Building on the outcome of engagement with stakeholders in 2013 under Improving General Practice – a Call to Action, the report focuses on the central role NHS England wants general practice to play in wider systems of primary […]