Please be aware that even if you decide to opt in and have already notified your PCN and your CCG of this, or are planning to do so but then you reconsider before 31 May, you can still opt out as long as you declare this by 31 May at the latest. In that situation, please remember that the notice requirement for opting out of the DES is one month, therefore if you opt out by 31 May this will not become effective contractually until 30 June and you will be legally entitled to all PCN DES payments for the month of June.
The LMC has been contacted by a number of practices concerned at the implications of signing up to the PCN DES for another year, or of deciding to opt out. As always this will be a decision for each practice to make based on its own individual circumstances and in discussion with PCN colleagues and their provider organisations but the LMC’s position remains that the PCN DES fails to provide a solution to the massive challenges facing general practice nor the support required to ensure practice sustainability. The LMC has always had considerable misgivings about the PCN DES, which we believe is an unfit for purpose, under-resourced, over-bureaucratic, complex, nationally-driven, centrally-controlled, one-size fits all solution which is designed to benefit agendas other than ensuring the resilience and sustainability of practices. In counter-balance to this of course the implications going forward of opting out remain unclear (though being a member of an at-scale provider would then seem likely to offer some protection), and whilst the LMC concerns over the PCN DES are clear, it is also understandable that, when faced with having to cross the Pacific, a rickety and leaky canoe may inevitably make more appeal than the possibility of having to swim whilst carrying all your luggage and with one hand tied behind your back.