The way we work with general practice has changed significantly over the past year, most recently with the launch of the Existing Liabilities Scheme for General Practice (ELSGP). A couple of years ago, rising indemnity costs were an increasing source of concern for general practitioners, those working in general practice more widely and the issue was negatively affecting the GP workforce.
As part of the government’s commitment in ensuring that general practice remained an attractive long-term career option, the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice (CNSGP) was launched to deliver a more affordable and sustainable system.
Since launching a year ago, CNSGP case volumes have broadly been in line with projections, most of which are pre-claim. We have developed a suite of materials to support general practice and collaborated with system partners to ensure the wider workforce are aware of the scheme. The scheme has proven invaluable in supporting out-of-hours work, providing comprehensive cover for all activities within scope, and most importantly, alleviating costs for the wider general practice workforce.
We’ve spent the past 25 years predominantly navigating the secondary care landscape, and have understandably faced a few challenges in our venture into general practice. The launch of the scheme marked a big shift in the way general practice indemnity operates. CNSGP covers activities under the contract, not specific individuals and ensuring people understand the contractual arrangements under which they are providing services is paramount. In response to feedback and queries on a number of ancillary health services, and activities that fall in and out of scope, we have develop our supporting documents to provide clarity.
We are eager to ensure both CNSGP and ELSGP keep pace with the evolving models of care delivery in primary care and will continue to keep the schemes under review and responsive to feedback.
