GP practices at the brink of closure are being denied millions of pounds of funding promised to them by health secretary Jeremy Hunt, Pulse has learned.
Pulse has found that barely any of the £10m ‘vulnerable practices fund’ announced by Mr Hunt as part of his ‘new deal’ for general practice has actually made it to the practices most in need, 14 months after it was first announced.
Meanwhile, practices are continuing to close due to funding problems and struggles to recruit GPs.
GP leaders said that the fund has been ‘too complex’ and ‘too cumbersome’ to achieve its aim of support practices most in need.
NHS England promised the £10m fund – announced in June 2015 – would ‘provide support to practices under pressure, ensuring patients have continued access to high-quality care’.
It gave funding to its local area teams to identify vulnerable practices and then use the funding to support them
At the start of this year, NHS England regions identified 800-plus practices that they considered to be vulnerable.
But the Pulse investigation found that, in most cases, NHS managers haven’t even decided which practices will receive the funding, and there is no indication when practices will receive tangible support.
For full article see Pulse Today 3 October 2016