General practitioners make over 9 million referrals each year, triggering many billions of pounds of expenditure. There is also significant variation in the quality and rate of referral between GPs and GP practices. As the NHS faces a prospective funding gap of £14-£20 billion and GPs take the lead for ...
Although the coalition government has pledged to protect funding for the NHS, the pressures to meet rising demand will put a strain on spending. Building on a previous analysis produced in association with the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this paper examines the gap between the likely available funding and the ...