The next government must signal trust in general practice by putting money in the core contract

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) recently published the results of a survey suggesting that almost three quarters of trainee GPs are finding it difficult to find vacancies to apply for, despite the fact that demand for general practice is rising and the number of GPs has fallen.1 GP practices are struggling for funding (which despite increasing demand has fallen as a proportion of the NHS budget) and some are arguing that the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) scheme, which aims to broaden the range of professions working in general practice by providing a separate pot of funding for staff other than GPs and practice nurses, should be able to be used to fund these core staff.It’s easy to see why this is an attractive solution: the money is already in the system, and it is ringfenced for staffing. The funding is given to groups of practices known as…
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