Nick Bostock

GPs have been urged to step up collective action after an LMC analysis found the government's autumn budget will drive up costs by £47,000 a year for an average practice - wiping out almost half of the GP contract uplift for 2024/25.

The new and ‘improved’ daily, anti-smoking medication will soon be available to patients on the NHS in England, three years after a branded version of the drug was withdrawn over safety concerns.

GPs will hit out over underfunding of general practice at the Northern Ireland LMCs conference this month - demanding that GMS contract funding should rise to more than the price of annual insurance for a pet hamster.

The government should create clear targets to define the proportion of eligible people who should receive an NHS health check each year - and consider adding the checks to the QOF, a National Audit Office (NAO) report says.

Routine vaccination against COVID-19 could end for patients aged between 65 and 74 from next autumn under updated advice from the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) - which also repeats its stance that the jabs should no longer be offered to NHS staff.

Wes Streeting has ruled out an exemption to protect GP practices from cost increases announced in the autumn budget and said they are 'not formally part of the NHS', as the BMA warned general practice faces an 'existential threat' without additional support.

Updated guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says that routine COVID vaccination should only be offered to adults aged over 75, residents in care homes for older adults and people aged six months or over who are immunosuppressed.

GPs in Northern Ireland will be denied the 6% pay uplift awarded to doctors across the UK for 2024/25 after the government said it was unaffordable - sparking 'anger and outrage' on an scale doctors' leaders say is unprecedented.

Wes Streeting has ruled out an exemption to protect GP practices from cost increases announced in the autumn budget and said they are'not formally part of the NHS', as the BMA warned general practice faces an'existential threat' without additional support.

General practice could need a new contract with a revamped funding formula to tackle the fallout from the autumn budget, the BMA England GP committee chair has warned.