DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 97/354 #4 MILLION TO KICKSTART BREAKTHROUGH SALARIED DOCTORS SCHEME Ministers hail historic new development for the NHS
Health Minister, Alan Milburn today announced a new scheme allowing salaried family doctors to be employed within the NHS for the first time.
Mr Milburn said that the salaried doctors scheme is a historic breakthrough in workforce flexibility. He said that it will give greater career opportunities for GPs and will benefit patients by targeting family doctors to where they are of greatest need.
It is to be backed by an additional #4 million available immediately on top of the Health Authorities' existing GMS cash-limited allocations, which can be drawn on for the scheme. The scheme will:
* help GPs improve the quality of family doctors services provision by tapping into a currently under-utilised pool of qualified doctors;
* improve career opportunities for GPs who would prefer not to work as principals, such as new GPs or parents of young children;
* give Health Authorities additional flexibility to support local GP services and new developments.
Salaried doctors will not be partners within a practice, but will be classified as employees of one of the partners.
Health Authorities will decide where salaried doctors are employed and this will give them the ability to target real areas of need and improve the quality of patient care.
Alan Milburn said:
"The advent of salaried GPs is a major development. The profession has been calling for a salaried scheme for some time. This will bring real benefits for patients and family doctors, especially in areas where there is a shortage of GPs at present.
"The money which I am announcing will give the scheme a real kick-start so that patients have the care they need.
"In areas with specialist health needs, or a shortage of GPs, a doctor could be employed part-time or on a short term basis to meet that need or demand for patient care. Health Authorities will help meet the employment costs of salaried doctors, giving them the ability to target areas of need to improve the delivery of primary care services to patients.
"It will help encourage doctors back into the NHS and ease newly qualified doctors into General Practice. Doctors who are constricted from working full-time because of family life or a desire to combine being a GP with research work could work part-time. Similarly, newly qualified doctors, or doctors who want to return to General Practice, who may not wish to become partners in a GP practice could work on a salaried contract until they find a position they wish to take up permanently."
Notes to Editors
1. Under the scheme all GPs will be eligible for the reimbursement of the costs of employing a salaried doctor. The scheme is set out in an amendment to paragraph 52 of the Statement of Fees and Allowances, the statutory document which spells out the payments GPs can receive for providing general medical services.
2. The #4 million for this year will be added to Health Authorities' GMS cash limited funds as a non recurrent cash limit adjustment. An FHSL and FDL will issue to Health Authorities shortly. In addition to the #4m announced today, a further #21m of growth has already been allocated for 1998-99 as part of the Health Authority allocations made on 29 October (Press Notice 97/308). The salaried GP scheme will have a first call on this growth money.
3. Examples of situations where a salaried doctor may be appropriate are where:
* there is a lack of equity of access to services for patients because, for example no female doctor is available - a female doctor could be employed part-time to meet demand;
* the local population has very specific needs, such as inner city areas with ethnic minority communities or a high number of homeless people;
* a declared vacancy exists but the GP has been unable to fill the vacancy - a doctor could be employed on a short-term contract to fill this post temporarily.
* it is not practical for the GP to recruit a partner at the current time or in the foreseeable future but where unmet health needs exist in the area;
* some "pump priming" may be necessary, directed towards a salaried doctor post, to build up the practice in a way which may make it viable in the future to take on a partner and where this would deliver clear benefits for patients.
4. There will not be any centrally determined national salary rates: the scheme is expected to be flexible enough to meet local needs and circumstances.
5. Salaried doctors would be eligible for inclusion in the NHS Pension Scheme. Alan Milburn announcement the inclusion of GP Practice Staff in the NHS Pension Scheme on 11 June (Press Notice 97/129).
6. This scheme provides different opportunities to those available under Primary Care Act 1997 which allows for the piloting of arrangements for GPs to be employed by NHS Trusts as well as by other GPs. Under the Primary Care Act pilot schemes, employed GPs will be able to perform Part I personal medical services. The salaried doctors scheme announced today allows doctors to perform within the existing Part II general medical services.
7. Two letters from the NHS Executive to the health service have been issued which explains the scheme and allocated the #4 million of funding for this year. These letters, FHSL(97)46 and FDL(97)39 are available from the press office.
[ENDS]
# = pounds sterling
