1 week Ago By Paul Gallagher
The rise in employers’ national insurance contributions in the Budget will leave GP surgeries with “no choice but to cut appointments and staff”, according to analysis from the Liberal Democrats. The party said the rise could end up costing GP surgeries the equivalent of over two million appointments a year and it is calling on the government to exempt GPs and other health and care providers from the increase, which is due to come into force next April. Public sector organisations are set to receive additional funding to cover the extra costs from the NI hike – but the private and voluntary sectors are expected to use their own funds.
GP practices, which deliver NHS services but are mostly run as small businesses, are currently due to be hit by the rise. From next April, employers will have to pay NI at 15 per cent on salaries above £5,000, instead of the current 13.8 per cent on salaries above £9,100.
The Institute of General Practice Management has estimated that the rise will mean the average GP surgery’s tax bill will go up by around £20,000 a year. The 6,275 GP practices in England could end up facing a total of £125.5m a year in additional costs.
This is the equivalent of providing 2.24 million GP appointments, at £56 per appointment. The average GP surgery could therefore lose the equivalent of 357 appointments a year.
The Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan said: “Clobbering GP practices with higher taxes makes no sense at a time when many people are already struggling to get an appointment. Surgeries are already struggling and these increased costs will leave GPs with no choice but to cut services and staff numbers. Read Next Budget tax rise will be 'monumental' for GP surgeries, hospices and care homes “Ultimately it is patients around the country who will pay the price.
The Chancellor needs to urgently rethink these proposals and exempt GPs from this misguided tax hike.” The Royal College of GPs has written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, calling for GP surgeries to be protected from the rise by receiving the “necessary funding to cover these additional costs”. Its chair, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, added that otherwise surgeries would have to look at making redundancies or even potentially closing down, meaning patients would “bear the brunt” of the tax hike.
The government has suggested that the extra cost of higher national insurance contributions paid by GP practices will be taken into consideration when GP contracts are renegotiated later this year. A government spokesperson said: “We have taken tough decisions to fix the foundations so a £22bn boost for the NHS and social care could be announced at the Budget. The employer national insurance rise doesn’t kick in until April, and we will set out further details on allocation of funding for next year in due course.
“We will also hire an extra 1,000 GPs into the NHS by the end of this year, having already announced a contract uplift for GPs and practice staff, and we will ensure practices have the resources they need to offer patients the highest quality care.”.
