Future GP workforce plans for London
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan commissioned The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust to undertake an independent analysis of sustainability and transformation plans (STP) in London.
The full 98 page document is availableonline. The most relevant section for London GPs is the section on workforce reproduced below (P73 in the report).
What might this mean for the workforce?
For NHS providers, staff pay costs make up around 65 per cent of operating expenses. It is therefore inevitable that a substantial element of the £3.4 billion savings plans for London will be found through a reduction in expenditure on staff, at least when set against the ‘do-nothing’ scenario.
STPs are in the early stages of working out the impact their savings plans will have on the shape andsize of their future workforce.
Analysts working on STPs in London indicated to us that the figures cited in their planning documents were highly tentative and in places incomplete.
One London STP–North West London–did not provide us with any workforce estimates as the figuresit had provided NHS England in October were being corrected as this report was being drafted.
Across the four STPs that were able to include some early estimates, the reported impact of their combined savings plans was to reduce, in absolute terms, whole-term equivalent staffing numbers between 2016/17 and 2020/21 by 1.4 per cent, or slightly more than 2,000 staff.
This included 3,800 fewer registered nurses, midwives and health visitors (a reduction of 7 per cent against the 2016/17 level) and 600 fewer hospital doctors and dentists (a reduction of 3 per cent).
These reductions would be partially off-set by a projected one-third increase in GP and GP support staff (3,670 extra WTEs). Some STPs are likely to seek to manage these reductions in qualified clinical staff byincreasing thenumbers of trained health care support staff working in the community.
In other workforce news NHS England has announced it intends to recruit 600 overseas GPs by April
2018 in eleven areas including South East and North East London.
Last updated : 19 Sep 2017
Friday 8 May Bank Holiday opening (29 Apr 2020)
With just over a week to go there still remains a lack of clarity on funding of staff payments and costs. Until clear, we continue to advise you to keep...Temporary changes to GP Connect and the Summary Care Record (SCR) (29 Apr 2020)
NHSX and NHS Digital are making temporary changes to GP Connect and to the Summary Care Record to help the NHS respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. These changes are to improve...Covid-19 PPE and other supplies - latest update (29 Apr 2020)
Supplies of practice equipment, particularly PPE remains of great concern due to levels of availability being mismatched to need. Whilst there are low levels of stock with some suppliers, many...Londonwide LMCs' 29 April 2020 Newsletter (29 Apr 2020)
...General Practice During The Pandemic: The Role of the General Practitioner and Practice Team (29 Apr 2020)
Our new document, General Practice During The Pandemic: The Role of the General Practitioner and Practice Team, looks at how practice teams are adapting to the Covid-19 challenge and...Guidance
We provide expert guidance for practices in our guidance section, as well as an archive of other materials you may find useful.
GP Support
Contact our GP Support team if you need help or advice.
The team provide professional and pastoral support to GPs and practice teams on a broad range of issues.
follow us on...
