New Changes to the 2025/26 GP Contract

Following the announcement last month that the government had agreed a new one-year contract with GPs, Healthwatch can bring you more details of what the changes mean to patient care from 1 April.

Overall, funding for core GP work is increasing by £889m, equating to a payment of £121.79 per patient. A summary of the key changes in the new contract is below.

Appointment booking

• From later this year, 1 October, practices will have to keep online consultation services switched on during core opening times (8am-6.30pm), to allow people to request a non-urgent appointment, a repeat prescription or make an admin query. 'Necessary safeguards' will be developed to avoid patients mistakenly submitting urgent requests online that aren't seen by staff for some time.
• Patients will still be able to contact their practice, by phone, online or by walking in, and should have 'an equitable experience across these access modes'.

A new Patient Charter

• Later this year, GP practices will be required to publish a patient charter on their websites that 'will improve transparency for patients and make it easier for them to know how practices will handle their request and what to expect from their practice'.
• The government is currently drafting the wording of this charter, with feedback from our national partners Healthwatch England, the local Healthwatch Network and other patient bodies.

Pre-referral advice for patients

• GPs will be incentivised with a £20 enhanced service payment each time they seek 'advice and guidance' (A&G) from specialists instead of, or before, referring patients to outpatient appointments.
• The government is making £80m available for A&G, on top of the core funding increase, for A&G to encourage closer working between primary and secondary care and help cut elective waiting lists.
  
  (RCGP research has found that while A&G can be a quick way to get specialists to answer GP queries about patients, some GPs felt hospitals used it to limit genuine referrals or expected GPs to perform pre-referral monitoring for which they weren't resourced)

Prevention and management of heart disease

• 32 Quality and Outcome Framework (QOF) indicators will be scrapped and funding for these will go into the overall GP funding pot and towards nine cardiovascular disease (CVD) indicators.
• The 32 indicators had included requirements for practices to keep registers of patients with specific conditions, such as diabetes, kidney disease and learning disabilities, and ensuring people with severe mental illness received physical health checks.
• The nine CVD indicators include targets like clinically acceptable blood pressure readings for people with a history of stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. NHS England says redistributing QOF funding across the CVD indicators will support the aim to reduce premature mortality from heart disease or stroke by 25% within a decade.

Recruitment via the ARRS scheme

• Primary care networks can continue to use the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to recruit GPs, after this was opened up for the first time to GPs last year. Practice nurses can now also be recruited this way.

Childhood vaccinations

• GPs will be paid £2 more for each childhood vaccination they give to try and boost overall uptake.
• The gap between the two childhood MMR doses is also changing, with the second one to be given at a new immunisation visit at 18 months, instead of at aged 3 years and 4 months.
• Schedules are changing for MMR, to increase by £2 to £12.06 in 2025/26. There will be an evaluation during 2025/26 of the effect that these changes have on activity, uptake and inequalities in uptake.

Joined-up tech

• By 1 October 2025 practices will be required to enable functions within GP Connect to give NHS-funded providers (including private providers) the ability to read patients' GP records for the purpose of direct patient care.
• By the same date, practices will also have to let pharmacies send Pharmacy First consultation summaries into their GP systems

To see the changes in full on the NHS England website, please click here.