NHS England working to solve GP payment problems

By Matthew Thompson | 26th November 2013 | 7 min read

This year has seen a number of issues with GPs receiving late or incorrect payments from CCGs, local area teams and other agencies. NHS England has now set up a GP payments working group to try and solve these issues.

The group contains representatives from NHS England’s finance team, the GPC, NHS Shared Business Services and IT service providers and will meet regularly to provide NHS England with updates on priorities around payment issues.

Any form of payment issue, whether it revolves around paying employees or receiving payment, can have serious knock on effects on your practice’s cashflow. Many practices affected by such issues have been threatened with court summons to take their properties away or have had to take out overdrafts to manage their cashflow problems.

Dr David Geddes, head of primary care commissioning at NHS England, said: “We are acutely aware that payment issues are creating cash flow problems and other difficulties for some GP practices and we are doing all we can to rectify this.

We have set up a GP payments working group and this is now focusing on priority action areas as identified by its members. The GPC has been very helpful in supporting this piece of work. In the meantime, if any practice is suffering with significant difficulties, please contact the area team who can discuss measures that can be taken to help.”

Having payroll and accounting software in place that is designed especially for GPs can help you take steps to avoid these sort of issues. 50% of GP practices currently use either IRIS GP Payroll or IRIS GP Accounts to help handle their finances. Both pieces of software were designed by GPs for GPs so can handle the specific demands faces by your practice, including NHS pension schemes.

Why not download a free trial today to see how your practice could benefit from IRIS GP solutions.

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