Health Secretary Wes Streeting is set to announce a GP overhaul that will see working class areas being given more funding to tackle the ‘inverse care’ being delivered
GP practices in working class areas will get more government funding diverted to them thanks to a major NHS reform.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting will today announce a plan to tackle the “inverse care” being delivered after over a decade of Tory rule. He will tell how poorer areas where people generally live shorter lives also have fewer GPs, worse performing hospitals and longer NHS waits. The current GP funding formula favours areas with more older people, which are generally more affluent. In a speech in Blackpool, Mr Street-ing will say: “The truth is, those in greatest need often receive the worst quality healthcare. It flies in the face of the values the NHS was founded on.
“The circumstances of your birth shouldn’t determine your worth. Where towns have the greatest health needs and the fewest GPs, we will prioritise investment to rebuild your NHS and rebuild the health of your community.”
Currently, GP surgeries which serve working class areas receive on average 10% less funding per patient than practices in more affluent areas. Royal College of GP data shows that practices in some of the country’s poorest areas have roughly 300 more patients per GP than the most affluent regions.
The government will review how health needs are weighted in the distribution of funding through the GP contract, drawing on evidence from experts on the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation in consultation with doctors’ unions. Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS England’s director for primary care said: “It is essential that GP practices serving our most deprived communities, where health challenges are often greatest, receive a fair share of resources that reflects their need.
“The NHS is committed to ensuring people can access the help they need as quickly and easily as possible and ensuring funding reflects this will help us to do just that.”
GP funding reform will be part of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan being announced next month. ACRA provides recommendations and advice on the funding formula for health services in England, including GP funding, to ensure fair access based on population need.
BBC analysis last year found each permanent GP in England has 2,300 patients on average. This is up 17% in a decade. Areas where the problem is worst have over 3,000 per GP.
NHS data analysed by the BBC last year showed Thurrock in Essex has the worst ratio with 3,431 patients for every GP while Leicester has an average of 3,262. The government is also diverting £2.2billion, which has been set aside to support NHS hospital trusts which run up a deficit, to poorer areas.
Mr Streeting had already said there will be “no more rewar
ds for failure” and deficit support funding will be phased out entirely from 2026/27. Today he will announce this £2.2bn will now be diverted to pay for NHS resources like staff, medicines, new technology and kit in areas that have been left behind such as rural areas, coastal towns and inner cities. Many of these more isolated areas struggle to attract GPs and dentists.
Mr Streeting will say: “Thanks to the reforms we’ve made to bear down on wasteful spending, we can now invest the savings in working class communities that need it most. Last year we sent crack teams of top clinicians to hospitals in areas with the highest waiting lists and levels of economic inactivity. It has seen waiting lists in those areas falling twice as fast as the rest of the country.”