Government plans to boost retention of doctors through reforms to the NHS pension scheme 'fall short' of the long-term solutions needed, doctors' leaders have warned.

GPs have been urged to have a 'low threshold' for prescribing antibiotics and hospital referral in children presenting with symptoms of group A streptococcal infections, amid concern about rising levels of infection.

Negotiations on a new GP contract from 2024/25 will need to 'align closely' with plans to expand secondary prevention of respiratory disease, CVD and diabetes, NHS England has said.

GPs and other prescribers are now able to issue NHS prescriptions for antivirals due to increasing levels of the virus circulating in the community.

Talking General Practice speaks to GP and PCN clinical director Professor Aruna Garcea, who is chair of the NHS Confederation's primary care network advisory group.

Staff pay awards have outstripped increases in core GP practice funding between 2019/20 and 2021/22, piling pressure on primary care finances well before the current cost-of-living crisis.

Doctors are 'picking up the pieces of government failures' as the cost-of-living crisis, cuts to public services and erosion of public health policies deepen health inequality, the BMA has warned.

NICE has recommended two new indicators – one for AF and one for people with severe mental illness – that could be included in the QOF from April 2023.

Plans to roll out access for all patients to prospective entries to their GP medical records have been halted after doctors' leaders raised concerns over patient safety and data protection laws.

Scotland has lost 3% of its full-time equivalent (FTE) GP workforce since 2019 - sparking BMA warnings that general practice is at a 'tipping point' with capacity at its lowest point in more than a decade.

GPs fear hospital trust overspends could become 'general practice's problem' as representation of the profession within integrated care systems (ICSs) is eroded.

Written complaints about GP practices have surged by more than a third compared with pre-pandemic levels, with complaints upheld or partially upheld rising in line with the overall increase.

GPs attending the England LMCs conference backed junior doctors who look set to vote for industrial action in the new year as they push for pay restoration to 2008 levels.

The team looks at what the BMA, GPs and NHS England might want from a new contract deal in England, debates at England's LMCs conference and data on GP appointments that has been published at practice-level for the first time this week.

LMCs have hit out over the suspension of the first-ever female chair of the BMA England GP committee - passing a vote of no confidence in the association's complaints process and hinting at sexism.

PCN enhanced access requirements should be scrapped next year, LMCs have said.

GP leaders in England have backed a reduction in core practice hours to 9am to 5pm in a landmark vote for general practice.

Flawed practice-level data on GP appointments risk exposing practices to unfair naming and shaming without delivering benefits to patient choice promised by the government, GPs have warned.

A lower threshold for payment and exception reporting should be introduced to QOF targets for childhood immunisations, LMCs have said.

Soaring energy costs have left GP practices paying tens of thousands of pounds more per year to light and heat their premises and could drive a 'catastrophic surge' of practice closures, LMCs have warned.