From 1 April, in line with UKHSA advice, the following updated arrangements for staff and patient testing will apply.

Patient facing staff should continue to test twice weekly when asymptomatic. LAMP testing (saliva tests) will no longer be available, but LFD tests for patient facing staff will continue to be available through the gov.uk portal.

All symptomatic staff should test using LFDs and continue to follow the current return to work guidance. In a change to testing policy, staff who are household contacts of a positive COVID-19 case will no longer be required to have a PCR test in order to return to work. Symptomatic staff can continue to access LFDs via the gov.uk portal.

GPs and their teams faced an extremely challenging time during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, general practice in England continues to face a worsening workforce crisis. BMA research published last year showed that the NHS has lost nearly 2,000 full-time equivalent GPs in England since 2015.

A document has been published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to support stakeholders when responding to their supplementary consultation on the detail of proposals for regulations for the Provider Selection Regime.

The Health and Care Bill currently before Parliament proposes that new regulations may make provisions in relation to the arrangement of healthcare services in England. This is known as the Provider Selection Regime.

The Provider Selection Regime will be a new set of rules for arranging healthcare services, which is intended to give decision makers a flexible, proportionate decision-making process for selecting providers to deliver healthcare services to the public. It will be introduced via the forthcoming Health and Care Bill currently before Parliament (subject to Parliament passing the bill, and any changes that may arise from that process).

Recent NHS Digital data has shown that patient ratios vary widely across England, from 41,000 patients per GP at a practice in Coventry and Warwickshire, to just 96 at a Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin surgery.

This data shows worryingly large disparities in GP to patient ratios across the country and it is wholly unacceptable that patients should have to experience such variations in access to care.