GP fundholding is at the centre of government policy for developing purchasing and moving towards a primary-care led NHSI, but is not well understood by everyone within the NHS or by the wider public.
This paper is in four parts:
- parts 1 and 2 set out the basic building-blocks of the scheme – how it works and the changes and developments that have taken place as the scheme has grown year on year;
- part 3 looks at the arrangements fundholders make for managing their budgets, how this is paid for and the people they have recruited into the new posts;
- the fourth part examines the amounts fundholders have to spend, the savings they have made and the use they have made of them; and
- lastly, the paper looks ahead to the Audit Commission's national report on GP fundholding, due out early next year.