GPs to get £40m this winter to support up to 300,000 vulnerable patients

GP practices in England will receive £40 million to provide extra care for up to 300,000 vulnerable patients this winter, Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said, with the aim of preventing hospital admissions.

The government said practices can use the ring-fenced money to select patients they believe face the greatest risk of serious illness. The scheme particularly targets patients living with heart disease, frailty, emphysema or other forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Groups of practices known as Primary Care Networks can receive £126 per eligible patient they support. Care could range from health checks and home assessments to medication reviews and nurse-led respiratory clinics.

“If we want to take the pressure off our hospitals this winter, we've got to keep people well at home,” Burnham said. “So we're backing GPs to reach the most vulnerable people early, before a small problem turns into a trip to A&E.” Burnham added, “I'm not going to pretend this winter will be easy.”

Funding and opposition response

The government described the scheme as government-funded, but The Guardian and The Independent reported that its money comes from existing GP budgets for the 2026-27 financial year, ending in April 2027.

It was not immediately known which budget lines would provide the money or whether the scheme would last beyond this winter.

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan called it “a sticking plaster, paid for by raiding GP budgets that are already stretched to breaking point.” Morgan said, “To tackle the A&E crisis this winter, we need a plan to fix social care and give everyone the right to see a GP within seven days.”

Shadow health secretary Damien Hinds said the Conservatives welcomed the plans and called GPs “the backbone of the NHS in our local communities.” Hinds said, “Labour must deliver the same support and ensure this announcement isn't just a headline, but genuinely delivers for patients.”

Hinds also said the last Conservative government delivered 50 million more GP appointments a year than in 2019. The government said practices delivered more than 400 million appointments over the past year, roughly 24 million above the total for the 12 months to July 2024.

Calls for longer-term funding

“By offering more support to our most vulnerable patients such as home assessments to prevent falls, we will help keep them well and prevent them ending up in hospital this winter,” said Dr Amanda Doyle, NHS England's national director for primary care and community services.

Professor Andy Brooks, clinical chair of the National Association of Primary Care, welcomed the funding and said, “This is a valuable first step, and we'd like to see national policy go even further.”

Ruth Rankine, a director at the NHS Alliance, said, “The next step is to make this kind of proactive care a permanent part of how neighbourhood health is funded and delivered.”

Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the Royal College of GPs, welcomed the emphasis on prevention and patients most at risk of avoidable admission this winter. But she said short-term measures alone could not secure lasting improvements and urged a longer-term approach with “sustainable investment in general practice.”

A Royal College of Nursing spokesperson welcomed the scheme but said it “needs to be the start of long-term investment in the general practice nursing workforce, many of whom are running on empty.”

Wider winter preparations

“After such a heavy summer for our NHS as a result of the heat, everyone is working together to prepare for more challenging winter pressures,” Cooper said.

In January 2025, then-health secretary Wes Streeting said patients had been “let down” when they were treated in makeshift wards and faced hours-long ambulance waits. The Royal College of Physicians warned in October that the government still had much work ahead to end corridor care.

The government said the GP scheme is part of wider preparations that include £190 million allocated to the NHS in the Budget for winter pressures. Another £140 million went toward 14 new urgent care schemes.

It said 25 new or expanded urgent care sites will open this winter, including a £29 million same-day emergency care unit that opened Oct. 20 at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent.

The government expects the unit to accommodate an additional 60 patients daily, relieving an emergency department that normally sees around 350 a day.