05 April 2024

FODO member update - 5 April

This week:

• NHS primary care gets funding cut
• Sector news at a glance
• Health policy news

NHS primary care gets funding cut

The NHS in England has imposed real-terms cuts on all core primary care services.
 
GPs across England have voted to reject changes to the General Medical Services (GMS) contract. Although the BMA has rejected a below-inflation fee increase as "many practices will struggle to stay financially viable over the next 6 to 12 months and risk closure", the government and NHS England have imposed a 1.9% fee uplift from 1 April 2024. 
 
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of GPC England at the BMA, said: "In 20 years, I've never known GPs to be so frustrated, angry and upset."
 
Community Pharmacy England has said that the government has imposed untested changes on pharmacy without agreement and that this is unacceptable given the "financial fragility of community pharmacies".
 
Janet Morrison, Community Pharmacy England chief executive, said: "Any system that is based on an expectation of dispensing at a loss is damaging to community pharmacies and the patients they serve: it is unacceptable. This is yet another example of tinkering at the edges while inadequate pharmacy funding arrangements leave pharmacies struggling to stay open, and puts the safe supply of medicines at risk."
 
In dentistry, NHS patients will see their charges increase by 4%. The BDA said increasing patient charges is "a slap in the face for hard-pressed families" and hides real-term cuts in funding for NHS primary care dentistry. It added the "result is a £1.5bn black hole".
 
The OFNC also rejected DHSC and NHS England's proposals, but DHSC and NHS England also decided to impose a real-terms cut to GOS fees.
 
Paul Carroll, OFNC chair, said: "This derisory increase shows that talk is cheap. Despite effusive praise for the important role that primary eye care plays in meeting the nation's vision and eye health needs, once again we find ourselves at the back of the NHS queue. It is hard to take seriously, warm statements made by ministers, when they are not backed up by action."
 
Harjit Sandhu, FODO managing director, said: "Like GP, dentist and pharmacy colleagues, NHS primary eye care providers across England are angry. It defies economic logic to impose NHS fees at below costs. It is clear to every health policy expert that the NHS must invest more in primary care, not cut it to breaking point."
 
Persistent real-term cuts to NHS primary care come when public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped to a new record low.
 
FODO members who want to discuss or get more involved with our OFNC work should email [email protected]. 

Sector news at a glance

• DHSC has published new voucher values for England. FODO members who want a hard copy of the latest vouchers at a glance should complete this form.
• The EU has invested €4.7m in the I-SCREEN project. I-SCREEN is a multidisciplinary consortium that will develop an AI-based infrastructure for the early detection and monitoring of age-related macular degeneration. Learn more.
• A grandad is the first in the world to trial a new medicine?to reduce the impact of diabetic maculopathy, reports the BBC. The new treatment aims to reduce the need for injections by using a tablet-based medication instead.
• The BBC also reports on a patient who says he visited hospitals nine times before he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. At one point, he felt his "eye would fall out of my head" as it protruded so much. Surgeons have since removed the soft tissue cancer.
• A campaign by the RAC, College of Optometrists, Baroness Hayter and others has prompted the government to commit to commissioning an independent study into headlight glare. It follows RAC research that shows around 80% of drivers felt this issue was worsening. Read more.
• College of Optometrists has published its annual report, Optometrists at the heart of patient-centred eye care.?The College's annual accounts show income of £8.9m, £5.4m of which came from education, £2.9m from membership and £0.6m from other sources.
• OS vice chair and IP optometrist at Black & Lizars?casts an eye on the future in a new blog.
• HEIW is carrying out a national survey for non-medical independent and supplementary prescribers. The study aims to understand better the peer support you might find most useful. Participate in the survey before 1 June 2024.
• A recent Parliamentary Question has confirmed that 3,058 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors work in ophthalmology in England, including 1,465 FTE consultants.

Health policy news

Wes Streeting visits Moorfields

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting visited Moorfields Eye Hospital to learn about its collaboration with Google's DeepMind to develop AI tools that can scan retinal photographs. In an interview with the Financial Times, he welcomed Moorfield's approach to investing in technology.
 
He also told the FT that he would use spare independent sector provider capacity to offer NHS-funded eye surgery. He added that his goal is to make the NHS "so good that no one feels forced to go private".

Earlier in March, Streeting told Wired Health that the NHS risked going the way of Woolworths if it failed to modernise.

Other policy news

• Reform sets out the case for a new approach to health, including the need to "reorient healthcare to focus on primary and community services". Read more.
• Scottish NHS staffing levels law comes into force in a UK-first. Read more.