The final draft of the five-year STP for North Central London published by Camden Council last week revealed proposals for a new footprint-wide locally-commissioned services (LCS) contract.
The enhanced service offer would cover practices in all five boroughs of the STP footprint, covering a population of 1.45m, funded from existing LCS budgets and redistributed PMS premium funds withdrawn under the government’s equitable funding policy.
Dr Farah Jameel, LMC chairwoman in Camden, where 15 out of 35 practices operate under PMS contracts, said the plans were ‘extremely concerning’.
‘There is a concern around financial viability for PMS practices, this proposal needs further scrutiny and clarification,’ said Dr Jameel. ‘We don’t yet know the full scale of what such a proposal may bring, such as destabilisation of general practice. There is a real risk of the knock-on effect of this destabilisation on the rest of general practice in Camden, and then neighbouring areas. The same applies across the other four boroughs in North Central London.’
Full story in GP Online 2 November 2016