Fact-Check

Political leaflets are not subject to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) requirements that adverts are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

But you can check out the Facts here.

If you get any leaflets with statements or allegations you doubt, send them over and I will gladly Fact-Check them for you.

FACT-CHECK SUMMARY

Claim: In reference to Bartlett Group Practice’s GP shortage:

‘Despite the increasing costs for GP’s, the government is not providing enough additional funding. The struggle is frustrating the practice as much as their patients!’

Fact-Check : General Practice funding is complicated, but in simple terms it is made up to two parts: a part based on number of patients registered (not patients seen), and a part based on activity performed.

If we look at Frimley Green’s Bartlett Group Practice specifically, we know that they have been struggling to recruit GPs, and have been 30% down in recent times.

At the Frimley Green, Mytchett & Deepcut AGM on 22 May, the Lead Partner, Dr Richard De Ferrars, gave a talk on this. He shared some great news that they have suddenly been able to recruit 6-7 new GPs starting September, and I understand this is because they have increased the salary offered. More on this talk here.

So how has NHS GP funding changed over the last few years for Bartlett Group Practice?

Funding based on patients registered (not dependent on activity) has increased. Due to the shortage of GPs, funding based on activity has gone down:

WHAT WE ARE FACT CHECKING

A leaflet was circulated this week with the following:

The Facts

The problem with Bartlett Group Practice has been a lack of GPs, as explained by Dr de Ferras in his talk 22nd May.

GP practices are private businesses which receive funding from the NHS. This funding is governed by complicated contracts and formulae, but can summarised as:

  • A set amount dependent on the number of patients registered, with factors such as age taken into consideration. This is called the Global sum payment.
  • A payment based on activities perfiormed, including the Quality and Outcomes Framework, such as the percentage of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, on the register, who have had a face-to-face review in the preceding 12 months.
  • Cost of premises, rent or mortgage.

If you haven't got enough staff, you can't do as much activity, so your activity-based payments will go down. This is what has happened at the Bartlett Group Practice.

As staffing is increased and activity is increased, they can expect to recieve more funding.

Dr de Ferrars said he was not there to make political points; he didn't complain about lack of additional funding. He did quote figures that GP spending as a % of overall NHS funding has reduced from 11.5% of the total NHS budget to 8% as many more doctors are now employed in hospitals.

I haven't been able to find data to support these figures; my analysis suggests it has gone up from 6.2% to 6.4% between 2018-19 and 2021-22.

To put these figures into context, I pointed out to the meeting that the NHS budget since 2016 has increased by more than £700m a week since 2016, so even if the % has gone down, this is a % of a larger figure.

I also asked if it they paid competitive salaries for GPs? Dr De Ferrars replied that they paid a very competative salary. This is good news and suggests any salary issues have been addressed.

Stuart Black, June 2023.