A funding boost of £311m to GP surgeries in England will mean pay rises for practice nurses and their colleagues can now be delivered, the government has said.
The UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced today (30 August) that it was increasing the global sum, a monthly payment which funds general practices, by 7.4% from September.
“We expect nursing staff to receive the pay rise they deserve along with their GP colleagues”
Patricia Marquis
This boost, worth £311m, will be backdated to April 2024.
It is expected, according to the DHSC, that this extra money will be used to pay for the 6% wage boost for GPs and other general practice staff confirmed by the government last month for 2024-25.
GP surgeries are contracted, but not directly run, by the NHS and so the health service or government cannot impose an uplift in pay for staff.
As a result, while the money was granted with the intention of funding a pay rise, there is no guarantee that all practice staff across the country will receive one.
Last year, when a similar announcement of a boost to the global sum was made by the now-former government, unions aired concerns about regional variances and some workers missing out.
Speaking today, Royal College of Nursing executive director for England Patricia Marquis said she hoped this new funding would be passed on to nurses.
“Nursing staff will be pleased to see ministers confirm a long-overdue uplift in funding for general practice, including that to deliver the government’s recommended increase in pay,” she said.
Patricia Marquis
“We expect nursing staff to receive the pay rise they deserve along with their GP colleagues.
“We know that a significant number of our members working in general practice did not receive the full pay rise they were promised by government last year, with almost half saying they received no pay rise at all.
“There must be transparency from practices to ensure this is not repeated and nursing staff are not left out again.”
The DHSC has said it is its “expectation” that the pay rise will be passed on to all salaried general practice staff, which includes general practice nurses.
Meanwhile, in a statement alongside the funding annoucement, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting warned that the “front door to the NHS is broken” and that GPs were “overstretched”.
“After inheriting an absurd situation where GPs can’t find work while patients can’t get an appointment, we are taking immediate action to hire 1,000 extra GPs,” he added.
“We said that we would increase the proportion of NHS resources going into primary care, and now we are providing practices with the biggest funding uplift in recent years.”
He called on GPs to “work with” the government to “rebuild” general practice.
“We welcome this pay rise but know there is more to do”
Amanda Doyle
NHS England national director for primary care Dr Amanda Doyle welcomed the funding boost.
She said: “GPs and their teams are central to the NHS but across the country they are under huge pressure and working incredibly hard to deliver millions more appointments for patients compared to before the pandemic.
“We welcome this pay rise but know there is more to do and will continue to work with the profession to improve primary care for staff and patients.”
The DHSC said the increase in funding, as well as actions to recruit more GPs, was designed to “bring back the family doctor”.
Health leaders have also welcomed the changes to the global sum, such as NHS Confederation Primary Care Network chair Professor Aruna Garcea, who described it as a “much-needed step” towards improving the sustainability of healthcare.
“This is vital to start to address the underlying shortfall in fully qualified GPs and to allow even more care to be delivered in the community,” said Professor Garcea.
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