General Practitioners

– Scottish Parliament written question – answered at on 18 March 2011.

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Photo of Murdo Fraser Murdo Fraser Conservative

Question S3W-40499

To ask the Scottish Executive how it supports rural GP practices that raise income from dispensing services to continue to deliver services to communities when a community pharmacy opens in the area.

Photo of Murdo Fraser Murdo Fraser Conservative

Question S3W-40500

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that an increase in community pharmacies will not have a negative impact on the capacity of rural GP practices that raise income from dispensing services to deliver services to communities.

Photo of Murdo Fraser Murdo Fraser Conservative

Question S3W-40501

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the funding arrangements for GPs that raise income from dispensing services will be amended to ensure that rural practices can continue to deliver services to patients.

Photo of Murdo Fraser Murdo Fraser Conservative

Question S3W-40503

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that rural GPs who have lost income previously raised from dispensing can continue to deliver services to local communities.

Photo of Shona Robison Shona Robison Scottish National Party

Both urban and rural GP practices across Scotland, whether dispensing or non-dispensing, are allocated levels of funding to deliver essential and additional Primary Care Services by their local health board (called the global sum). These allocations are determined by the Scottish Allocation Formula which allocates resources on the basis of needs and workload of their patients, taking into consideration the relative costs of service delivery.

The formula contains weightings to reflect:

The age and sex structure of the practice population;

The additional needs of the practice population in areas of morbidity and deprivation, and

The rurality and remoteness of the practice population.

In addition to the incentives of the Quality and Outcomes Framework, an integral part of the General Medical Services contract which remunerates GPs, there are a number of Directed Enhanced Services offering increased care for patients in which GP practices can participate and earn income over and above their global sum allocation from the boards.

The extra remuneration given by NHS boards to GP practices to dispense to their patients is intended solely to cover the costs of delivering that service, and is not provided to cross-subsidise other services. GP practices should not be reliant on income raised from dispensing services to deliver essential and additional services under their General Medical Services contract, as appropriate funding is already allocated for this purpose. Any cross-subsidy would also be unfair on the patients of non-dispensing practices, who would not have access to that funding.

Negotiations are ongoing with the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association on future funding arrangements for dispensing GP practices in Scotland.

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