A message from our Patient Participation Group -
Please support your GP Surgery
As you will be aware in the October budget, the Government announced that employer national insurance contributions would rise to 15%. At the same time the threshold for payment would fall from £9,100 to £5,000.
While the Government have decided to exclude the public sector including the NHS from being affected by these changes, it has indicated that because most GP surgeries operate as a small business, in this instance it does not recognise GP surgeries as part of the NHS and therefore they will be expected to stand the full cost of these tax rises. Unlike other small businesses however, GP surgeries cannot put their prices up to cover this cost or other inflation costs. This could mean having to look at cutting services, staff etc. to stay within budget.
Given that the amount each surgery receives from the Government for each patient to provide the extensive services it does is only £112.50 per year, you can see that they have to manage on a very limited budget and it is unsurprising that over that last decade over 1,000 GP surgeries have closed. This situation needs to be rectified to ensure the stability and future of our precious GP surgeries.
You can help by raising awareness of this situation by contacting your local MP, Aphra Brandreth either by email at:
aphra.brandreth.mp@parliament.uk
or by letter to: Aphra Brandreth MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
You may wish to copy and paste the above statement as part of your communication and please ensure you include your name, and postal address in the email or the letter.
Thank you, we really appreciate your support and please share this with friends & neighbours!