Information received under a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed that around one in 20 GP practices has moved to general medical services (GMS) from private medical services (PMS) since April 2010, in a bid to ‘claw back’ funding.

According to the information, of more than 3,000 PMS practices across 151 PCTs in England, around one in 20 have moved back to GMS, with some 66 per cent of practices that moved receiving equivalent top-up funding from their primary care trust (PCT), even though PMS practices that switch back are not statutorily entitled to receive minimum practice income guarantee (MPIG) support.

The moves occurred all across England, with 25 out of 30 PMS practices returning to GMS in Gloucestershire PCT and 12 in Derby City PCT, all with the aim of protecting their income.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that more than half of Essex PMS practices have signed up to switch to GMS with special financial protection from the NHS England area team.

The special deal allows PMS practices to revert to GMS but with seven years’ worth of top-up payments. Although all PMS practices have the right to revert to a GMS contract at any given time, the Essex practices would see special treatment because of the transitional funding agreed.

Dubbed the ‘Essex factor’, the top-up payment will be worked out as the PMS ‘premium’, meaning what the practices are being paid above and beyond what they would be paid on a GMS contract, so that once on a GMS contract, the practices will still be paid their premium but it will be reduced by one-seventh each year for seven years.