Musculoskeletal Disorders: Health Services
(asked on 5th June 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan and NHS Planning Guidance commitments for 2019-20, what progress his Department has made on the commitment to build on work already undertaken to ensure that patients have direct access to MSK First Contact Practitioners; and if he will make a statement.
To support the 2018/19 mobilisation of first contact practitioner (FCP) services for musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, 98% of sustainability and transformation plans identified pilot sites for FCP services and 98% of those sites were operational by 31 March 2019. The NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment is to build on this work of piloting FCP services across England.
Further progress to be delivered in 2019/20 includes the development of a national mobilisation plan for local systems to roll out this service for patients across the country. To support successful mobilisation by local systems, the specification for FCP services for MSK conditions has recently been published and can be found via the following link:
All adults in England will have direct access to MSK FCP by 2023/24, across all Primary Care Networks. This will enable patients to see the right professional first time, first place without needing a general practitioner (GP) referral.
NHS England published a five-year framework for GP contract reform this year which has committed to invest £891 million to fund an additional 20,000 workforce across five staff groups including MSK FCPs to support general practice.