Changes to the GP Contract in 2025/26
Changes to the GP Contract in 2025/26
Last Friday (28th February 2025) saw the publication of the Changes to the GP Contract 2025/26 document from Dr Amanda Doyle (National Director for Primary Care and Community Services, NHS England). After reading it this morning and getting over the initial shock of the new upper thresholds for various QOF indicators, I thought I’d give you a heads-up on a couple of website-related points from the document.
Quoted:
From 1 October 2025 practices will be required to keep their online consultation tool open for the duration of core hours (8am – 6:30pm) for non-urgent appointment requests, medication queries and admin requests. This will be subject to necessary safeguards in place to avoid urgent clinical requests erroneously submitted online. Guidance will be displayed on practice websites and reflected in the wording of the patient charter (see below).
NHS England will publish a patient charter which will set out the standards a patient can expect from their practice, as outlined in the GP contract. The charter will need to be published on the practice website. This 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.
And just a reminder about the change in the 2024/25 GP contract that from October 2024 all Practices should be enrolled with the NHS GP Registration service to provide online registration via the website.
I will send a further update once further publications have been distributed regarding the new requirement of the patient charter.
