GP practices in England get £40m to give up to 300,000 vulnerable patients extra care this winter
People with heart disease, frailty or COPD could be offered medication reviews, health checks, home assessments and nurse-led breathing clinics.
GP surgeries in England are being given £40 million to seek out the patients most likely to end up in hospital this winter and offer them extra care first. The government says up to 300,000 people could be helped.
The Department of Health and Social Care published details of the scheme on Monday. The money is ring-fenced, and Primary Care Networks, the groups of practices that work together in an area, can claim £126 for each eligible patient they support.
Patients at greatest risk
Practices will pick out the patients they judge to be at greatest risk of becoming seriously unwell. The department names people with heart disease, frailty, emphysema and other forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as the main groups.
The help on offer could include:
- a review of the medicines they take
- a health check
- a home assessment, for example to cut the risk of falls
- a nurse-led respiratory clinic
Locum cover
Since October, practices have also been allowed to spend their GP reimbursement funding on locum GPs, so they can bring in extra doctors when demand rises.
Rest of the winter plan
The £40m sits alongside other winter measures set out by the department:
- The Budget gave the NHS £190 million for winter pressures and £140 million for 14 new urgent care schemes.
- A further 25 new or expanded urgent care sites will be open this winter. One of them, a £29 million same-day emergency care unit at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, opened on 20 October and is expected to see an extra 60 patients a day.
- By 1 November, more than 13.6 million people in England had had a flu vaccine, around 300,000 more than at the same point last year. That includes 2.4 million school-aged children.
The Royal College of GPs welcomed the focus on prevention but said short-term schemes could not by themselves bring lasting improvements for patients with complex needs. It said it hoped an evaluation of the programme would shape a longer-term approach backed by steady investment in general practice.
