Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to update guidance on how funds are allocated to GP surgeries in places with high demand such as Seaford, East Essex.

There are currently no plans to update how funding is allocated to general practice (GP) surgeries. GP practices receive funding through a range of income streams in return for providing services specified in the GP contract. ‘Global sum’, which is the funding allocated for providing core services, makes up between 50 and 60% of practice income. The rest of the income is made of Quality and Outcomes Framework, premises payments, directed enhanced service and additional services, for example vaccine and immunisation.

The global sum allocation formula, also known as the Carr-Hill formula, is designed to ensure that resources are directed to practices based on an estimate of their patient workload and unavoidable practice costs.

The formula considers GP-registered patient list size, adjusted and weighted to reflect differences in the age and sex composition of the practice’s registered patient list, together with a range of factors that take into account the additional pressures generated by differential rates of patient turnover, morbidity, mortality and the impact of geographical location. Under this formula, practices whose registered patients have greater healthcare needs are paid more per patient than practices whose registered patients have fewer healthcare needs.

The global sum figure for 2024/25 is set at £112.50 per patient as set out in the General Medical Services Statement of Financial Entitlements 2024.