NHS primary medical services

NHS primary medical services

Primary care services (PMS) provided by GPs in England, who work in ± 8,200 GP practices, directly employ thousands of practice nurses and care assistants, and carry out over 300 million patient consultations/year. PMS contractors are required to provide patients with essential services, can opt out of providing additional services and may provide enhanced services which have additionally been commissioned from practices by the local primary care trusts. Since 2004, four contracting routes been available to enable primary care trusts to commission or provide PMS to their populations. 
PMS contracting routes
• General medical services;
• Personal medical services, including Specialist personal medical services ;
• Primary care trust-led medical services;
• Alternative provider medical services.