Key Summary
- Baba Akomolafe backed GPs, noting they get under 8 per cent of NHS funds for most patient care
- He said Pharmacy First consultations cost £17, not £48
- Blamed poor management and top-down decisions for the NHS crisis
Christchurch Health Centre director and healthcare entrepreneur Baba Akomolafe, has said that he empathises with the plight of GPs, who are poorly paid.
While responding to a LinkedIn post by Steve Taylor, he lamented that GP practices account for less than 8 percent of the total NHS England budget, despite providing around 90 percent of all patient contacts.
However, he disagreed with Taylor’s claim that Pharmacy First cost per consultation was £48.
He pointed out that from June 2025, the standard consultation fee for Pharmacy First rose from £15 to £17.
“In addition, pharmacies can qualify for a monthly fixed payment. For example, £500 if they deliver 20–29 consultations a month or £1,000 if they deliver 30+. Very few Pharmacies are achieving this.”
Akomolafe said, “GPs and Pharmacists aren’t the problem, poor strategic workload management is.”
“Until that’s addressed, both professions will continue to feel overstretched and undervalued,” he added.
Earlier, Taylor had claimed that the current top-down management structure is the root cause of UK’s healthcare crisis.
According to him, the decisions made by the higher authorities are not helping the local GP practices.
Taylor claimed that there has been a 20 percent reduction in funding per person over the past decade.
He also criticized the hike in National Insurance (NI) and cut in the GP roles from practices using Addition Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS).
“More costly services being promoted by Govt/NHSE at the cost of patient care,” wrote Taylor in his recent LinkedIn post.
