Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, (1) to remove funding from General Practitioners who do not offer face-to-face appointments, and (2) to amend the funding formula for General Practitioners so that it is based on the number of patients seen rather than the number of patients registered with the practice.

There are currently no plans to remove funding from general practitioners (GPs) who do not offer face to face appointments. NHS England and NHS Improvement, have stated that GP contractors should continue to offer a blended approach of face-to-face and remote appointments, with digital triage where possible. Patients input into the choice of consultation mode should be sought and practices should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary, for example the presence of COVID-19 symptoms.

The global sum allocation formula which underpins capitation payments to general practices is designed to ensure that resources are directed to practices based on an estimate of their patient workload and unavoidable practice costs. 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. There are currently no plans to change the formula.