News

Wednesday 20 April 2011

New local Rent and Reimbursement policies from PCTs could impact you

It has recently been brought to GP Surveyors attention that Doctors from a number of regions across the UK are being sent guidance from their PCTs regarding local changes to the Rents and Reimbursement Scheme. These new policies have been developed by the PCTs in an effort to ensure the changes in valuations are handled in a timelier manner. However, we feel that some of these new policies may be misleading and may mean that Doctors could forgo their rights under the GP contract to challenge the new valuation figure, should they feel they are being underfunded.

Some of the new local procedures are placing time limits ranging from 6 weeks to 2 months for Doctors to dispute their new rent valuation figure.

In actual fact, under the Premises Cost Directions 2004, a dispute application may be made up to 3 years from the date of the valuation, or the date the PCT undertakes the review (whichever is later) as long as the practice hasn’t formally accepted the figure. If the original valuation has not been accepted and the Doctor is not happy with the figure reported, under their contract, they are not restricted by the shorter time limit set-out in the PCTs policies.

We have come across many scenarios where PCTs do not fully understand the guidelines in the Premises Cost Directions, meaning GPs could miss out on receiving the correct level of reimbursement if they are being underfunded.

For further advice regarding GP premises rent reimbursement, please do not hesitate to contact GP Surveyors.