In this week’s podcast, the team discusses GP funding after analysis by the Liberal Democrats showed a real-terms fall in practice funding during the past four years. Meanwhile, government figures have also shown that the share of NHS funding going to primary care has fallen to an eight-year low.
They also talk about problems at the primary care interface - the interface between practices and other parts of the NHS, including hospitals, community services and mental health services – and how it is wasting millions of GP appointments every year.
And they look at the latest on measles and MMR vaccine uptake after the UK Health Security Agency last week declared a national incident because of rising cases of measles.
Our good news story this week is about the Friends and Family Test.
This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower, deputy editor Nick Bostock and senior news reporter Kimberley Hackett. It was produced by Czarina Deen.
Useful links
- Which ICB areas have seen the largest drops in real-terms GP funding?
- RCGP warning as primary care share of NHS funding hits eight-year low
- Solving NHS 'interface' chaos could save 6m GP appointments a year
- NHS England launches catch-up MMR campaign amid rising measles cases
- GPs told to wear PPE when seeing suspected measles cases
