25% cut to Covid vaccine fees paid to GPs is ‘threat to patient safety’, BMA warns

The Government has decided to cut the fee GPs are paid per Covid vaccination by a quarter, prompting BMA to issue a patient safety warning.

NHS England has published the new enhanced service specification for Covid vaccines to be delivered between 1 September and 31 March next year, setting out that GPs will be paid £7.54 for each vaccine administered – down from £10.06 – and continue to be paid £10 for each housebound patient.

The fee had already been reduced from £12.58 last year, when the BMA advised GPs to review whether they were still able to fulfil the ES commitments.

The new specification said that practices with ‘sufficient workforce capacity so as not to impact the delivery of essential services and appropriately trained and experienced staff’ must indicate their willingness to participate in the programme before 5pm on 29 August.

The Item of Service fee for flu remains £10.06 of each vaccine delivered, according to the new specification published last week.

But the BMA said that that NHS England’s decision to reduce the Covid fee ‘undervalues general practice and threatens the safety of vulnerable patients’.

Read the full article here: https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-areas/respiratory/25-cut-to-covid-vaccine-ios-threat-to-patient-safety-bma-warns/