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.

NHSE/I has published a new policy for applications to the Medical Performers List (MPL), which introduces a number of changes including the removal of duplicated checks, introduction of more nuanced support tailored to the specific needs of the performer, and confirmation that performers are able to increase or decrease their scope of work whilst on the MPL.

The requirement to submit the FFT was suspended across the NHS in March 2020 to free up resources to support practices during the pandemic. The FFT has now restarted across the NHS and the temporary suspension will come to an end in March 2022. The requirement for practices to report to commissioners regarding FFT returns will be reintroduced into the GP contract from 1 April 2022.