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NHS Digital yesterday published the NHS Payments to General Practice in England annual report.

The report details payments to providers of general practice services by the NHS over the past financial year.

The report includes a breakdown of payments made through the Global Sum¹, Balance of Primary Medical Services (PMS) expenditure², Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF)³ and Enhanced Services⁴, including an estimate of how much the NHS paid per registered patient in England^5,6.

Also included in the report are payments to Primary Care Networks (PCN)⁷ and for the first time COVID-19 payments⁸. In this report there are seven separate PCN categories and two COVID-19 categories. These categories are: PCN Participation⁷, PCN Leadership⁷, PCN Support⁷, PCN Workforce⁷, PCN Care Home Premium⁷, PCN Extended Hours Access⁷, PCN Impact and Investment Fund⁷, COVID-19 Support and Expansion⁸ and COVID-19 Immunisation⁸.

Payments to 6,808 general practice service providers in England are covered by the figures.

The data is reported at individual practice, Clinical Commissioning Group, regional and national level.

Read the full report

NHS Payment to General Practice England, 2020/21

Notes for Editors

1. Global Sum is the main payment to practices and is based upon each practice’s registered patient list which is adjusted according to the Carr-Hill Formula to take into consideration differences in the age and sex of the patients as well as any in nursing or residential care, additional patient needs due to medical conditions, patient turnover and unavoidable costs based upon rurality and staff market forces for the area.
2. Primary Medical Services contracts are locally negotiated, but Balance of Primary Medical Services (PMS) expenditure payments are similar to Global Sum and Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG) in General Medical Services payments.
3. Total QOF Payments is comprised of Quality Aspiration Payments and Quality Achievement Payments. Aspiration Payments are a part payment in advance in respect of achievement under the Quality and Outcomes Framework.
4. Average payment per patient amounts are not representative of the amount of funding available to spend on direct patient care. Average payments per patient at GP practice, CCG, region or national level should be treated with caution as some patients may be double-counted – for example due to practice closure – while conversely no information relating to patient list size is known for 108 practices.
5. Average payment per patient amounts should not be compared with those presented in previous editions of this publication due to a change in methodology in 2019, although revised figures at England level for 2016/17 and 2017/18 have been calculated and are presented in the accompanying web page at https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-payments-to-general-practice/england-2019-20.
6. PCN Participation payments, which relate to all practices taking up membership of a PCN, are included in all tables, averages and totals. Total payments and average payments per patient figures have been calculated both including and excluding payments to six categories which relate only to Primary Care Network (PCN) lead organisations - PCN Leadership, PCN Support, PCN Workforce, PCN Care Home Premium, PCN Extended Hours Access and PCN Impact and Investment Fund. Payments to these categories are provided as a total in Table 2 and have not been included in Table 3 but are presented at PCN and CCG level in Table 4.
7. The pandemic affected the way General Practice operated in 2020/21 and placed additional responsibilities on GP practices for which they received additional payments. The report also includes two additional categories for COVID-19 related payments, COVID-19 Support and Expansion and COVID-19 Immunisation. COVID-19 support, and expansion payments covered the additional costs incurred by General Practice due to COVID-19, for example, additional staff costs to cover sick leave, additional care home visits and personal protective equipment. COVID-19 immunisation payments covered the additional costs incurred to support the co-ordination and delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.