£50m GP fund for expanded access

GPs can apply to a new £50m Challenge Fund to offer e-consultations, online appointment booking and telecare to patients.

New proposals set out by Prime Minister David Cameron aim to make it easier for people to access their family doctor from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.

Practices can apply to the fund to set up a pioneer programme. There will be nine pioneer sites established nationwide, which are expected to cover up to half a million patients.

The pioneers will test a variety of services to suit modern lifestyles, including; greater use of Skype, email and phone consultations; electronic prescriptions; online booking of appointments; and easier on-line registration and choice of practice.

They will also work on giving patients better access to telecare to help people stay at home for longer, as well as to healthy living apps, a government statement says.

Ministers want to use the pilots as the first step to rolling out the expanded access scheme across the country and encouraging hundreds more GP practices to sign-up.

Cameron said the government wants greater flexibility in primary care, “so people can speak to their family doctor on the phone, send them an email or even speak to them on Skype”.

NHS England will work with a range of organisations and an external reference group to identify GP groups who will lead the development of the new scheme.

The £50m Challenge Fund will be open to all practices that are interested in testing the innovations and will be run as a competition, where the best practices will be encouraged to submit applications.

More detail on the process for selecting and supporting these sites and practices will be set out later in December, with the first pioneers up and running from April 2014.

Initial results will be reviewed at a high-level summit next summer to determine what has worked well for patients and how good practice can be shared across the rest of the country.

Dr Charles Alessi, chair of the National Association of Primary Care, said the announcement has the potential to be the most exciting development in primary care in the last decade.

“It is an opportunity for doctors to be the good family doctors they want to be while working with everyone in the system to deliver better care for everyone, especially those most in need,” he said.