Funding controversially cut from more than 20 Huddersfield GP practices will be redistributed to surgeries in deprived areas and other services.
The ‘PMS Premium’ pot, worth almost £1m, was raised by slashing funding to 21 out 38 Huddersfield practices on Personal Medical Services (PMS) contracts.
Now Bradford Road Medical Centre, Fartown, and Thornton Lodge Surgery are set to receive a share of a £170,000 ‘disadvantaged practices payment’ fund because they operate in deprived areas.
Also receiving a disadvantaged practices payment will be University Health Centre because it has a disproportionately high number of younger patients.
The university surgery – also on a PMS contract – mounted a campaign when NHS England announced it was cutting the practice’s funding by a third.
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A document outlining the scheme said: “In Greater Huddersfield it has been noted that there are three practices that are considerably disadvantaged by this process – University, Bradford Road and Thornton Lodge.
“The reason for this disadvantage is that these three practices have a high percentage of younger patients and a high level of deprivation in the case of the latter two practices.
WATCH Slawit SOS campaigners below
“The proposal is therefore that these practices should receive a payment that caps the difference between their weighted and raw list size.”
The remainder of the PMS Premium fund will be spent on diagnostic services (£110,995), blood testing (£194,500), a scheme to wean patients off prescription drugs (£200,000) and doctors working in care homes (£249,900).
This shake-up of GP practice funding in Huddersfield has proved controversial, resulting in the Slawit Health Centre SOS campaign.
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The document notes: “This is not ‘new’ money into the area; it is money that is being removed from some PMS practices so that it can be used across all practices regardless of their type of contract.”
Slaithwaite Health Centre, which is facing a 44% cut, is believed to be the only PMS contract surgery in England (outside London) yet to be affected.
The document also notes: “Locally there is one practice (who would be the largest contributor to the premium) who is in dispute with NHS England about the process and policy.
“The financial position for the Clinical Commissioning Group with regards to this funding is therefore unclear.”
Campaigners have said Slaithwaite Health Centre may have won its stay of execution because one of its patients has threatened legal action against NHS England over the cuts.
NHS England has denied this claim.
