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<p>From April 2014 to April 2016, the Government has invested £175 million in developing
innovative approaches to extend access to general practice through the Prime Minister’s
GP Access Fund which has included testing, adoption, and evaluation of:</p><p> </p><p>―
new types of consultation such as phone, video and online consultations;</p><p>― online
pre-referral diagnosis tools; and</p><p>― telehealth, telecare and healthy living
apps.</p><p> </p><p>During 2017/18<ins class="ministerial"> and 2018/19</ins>, £171
million will be made available <del class="ministerial">to</del> <ins class="ministerial">from
</ins>clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable practices to upscale and implement
measures tested through the Access Fund.</p><p> </p><p>A further £1 billion multiyear
investment has been committed via the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund from
April 2015 to April 2019, to help GP practices go further and faster to increase the
use of technology and develop the primary care estate. Funding will be aligned with
local digital roadmaps priorities and will support technology led improvement and
innovation which improve patient and clinician experience of services, and access
to primary care.</p><p> </p><p>The ‘General Practice Forward View’, released in April
2016, announced a commitment to greater use of technology. This includes an increase
of over 18% in allocations to CCGs for provision of IT services and technology for
general practice, alongside revised funding arrangements for GP IT in 2016-18. This
will allow CCGs sufficient local flexibility to commission and procure GP IT services
to meet local need. There will also be an additional £45 million multiyear national
programme to stimulate uptake of online consultation technology for every practice.</p><p>
</p><p>The National Information Board also has a programme of work known as Transforming
General Practice which will use technology to free GPs from time consuming administrative
tasks and provide patients with online services.</p>
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