NHS England announces GP funding and support plan

A new multi-billion-pound plan to improve support and funding for general practice has been unveiled by NHS England.

Under the new proposals, an extra 2.4 billion pounds a year will be earmarked for general practice services by 2020-21, meaning spending will rise from 9.6 billion pounds in 2016-17 to over 12 billion pounds by 2021.

This 14 percent real-terms increase will be accompanied by an additional 500 million pound national turnaround package to support GP practices, plus extra funds from local clinical commissioning groups.

Efforts will be made to recruit an extra 5,000 GPs in the next five years, plus 3,000 fully funded practice-based mental health therapists and an extra 1,500 co-funded practice clinical pharmacists.

Schemes to develop premises and reform care provision will also help to address the challenges faced by GPs, who have seen their share of NHS funding neglected in recent years.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: "Rather than ignore these real pressures, the NHS has at last begun openly acknowledging them. Now we need to act, and this plan sets out exactly how."