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A letter this month from Ben Dyson, the DoH’s director of primary care commissioning, informs PCTs that PMS practices should not receive any more funding than GMS practices.

Because 90 per cent of GMS practices will receive no increase in funding this year, PMS practices should not receive an uplift ‘in the interests of equity’, writes Mr Dyson.

Any PMS practice that already receives £56.20 per patient should not receive any more, the letter says.

Until recently some PMS GPs had held out hope that they were entitled to whatever the global sum rose by – 2.7 per cent this year – due to a clause in certain PMS contracts.

GPC deputy chairman Dr Richard Vautrey said: ‘It doesn’t surprise me at all – but it does make a mockery of the government’s argument that PMS is a local contract.

‘It calls into question whether it is truly a local contract. When it suits it the government doesn’t allow us to negotiate from the centre. ’

tom.ireland@haymarket.com

• Read GP’s 22 August edition for the full story.

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