GPs will get £40 million to give up to 300,000 vulnerable patients extra support this winter, the Prime Minister and Health Secretary said on Monday.
The funding is ring-fenced for practices to identify and care for the patients they consider most at risk of becoming seriously unwell. Primary Care Networks can receive £126 for each eligible patient supported.
At that rate, 300,000 patients would come to £37.8 million, within the £40 million total.
The support is aimed particularly at people with heart disease, frailty, emphysema and other types of COPD. It could include medication reviews, health checks and nurse-led respiratory clinics, as well as home assessments.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the aim is to reach the most vulnerable people early, “before a small problem turns into a trip to A&E.”
NHS England’s national director said home assessments to prevent falls are part of the offer, which is meant to keep patients out of hospital this winter.
The Royal College of GPs said: “Short-term initiatives alone cannot deliver the sustained improvements in care that patients with complex health needs require.” It said it hoped the evaluation would inform a longer-term approach to prevention.
The NHS Alliance said the next step is to make proactive care “a permanent part of how neighbourhood health is funded and delivered.” The NAPC called the scheme “a valuable first step” and said it wanted national policy to go further.
Asthma + Lung UK described the money as “a positive step” for helping GPs identify those most at risk.
The programme sits alongside other winter measures. Practices have been able since October to use GP reimbursement funding to bring in locum GPs. The government said there are more than 30,500 fully qualified full-time equivalent GPs, and more than 2,800 more than in July 2024.
The NHS also received £190 million in the Budget for winter pressures. A separate almost £140 million for 14 urgent care schemes was announced on 18 October.
A further 25 new or expanded urgent care sites are due to open this winter.
They include a £29 million same-day emergency care unit that opened on 20 October at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, expected to take an extra 60 patients a day in an emergency department that normally sees around 350.
The government also cited flu vaccination progress, reported both as vaccinations delivered and as people vaccinated. More than 7.4 million vaccinations had been delivered in England by 11 October, and more than 10 million by 22 October, including 2.7 million in that week.
The latest figure is given for people: more than 13.6 million people in England had received a flu vaccine by 1 November, around 300,000 more than at the same point last year.
COPD winter schemes have been run locally before. NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board awarded a separate 2025 contract, COPD Winter Readiness, worth £250,000 excluding VAT or £300,000 including VAT.
It ran from 4 November 2025 to 30 September 2026 and covered 20 GP practices in its second phase.
The board said COPD hospital admissions are approximately 50 per cent higher in winter than in summer.