Some £10m of the Winter Access Fund money in CCG budgets remains unspent, Pulse reports in a new exclusive.
The Winter Access Fund, announced last year, allocated £250m of funding for general practice to spend on interventions. Locum support was one of the main examples given of ways the fund could be spent to support colleagues.
FOIs revealed that:
- East and West Sussex CCGs had not spent around £1m and £1.75m respectively.
- More than £1m worth of workforce, digital, and resilience funding was unspent in County Durham CCG.
- Brighton and Hove and Bolton CCGs both had more than £500,000 unspent.
- Kirklees CCG had more than £300,000 of GP Forward View funding unspent.
GPs and commissioners have been urged to submit last-minute proposals to access these funds.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “Clinical Commissioning Groups are well placed to coordinate the clinical workforce to where it is most needed. Having been directly involved with some innovative GP and practice nurse workforce projects using this funding, we can see what a huge difference it has made in some areas.
“In one particular area over this winter, we have helped practices in one CCG to book over 1000 locum sessions who otherwise would have struggled without this funding.
“Our advice to any CCGs that have not yet spent their money would be to get in touch with us so that we can help them too.”
Contact us on info@nasgp.org.uk and find out more about our work.