Senior GPs have demanded “urgent assurance” from the Health Secretary that practices will be exempt from the increase in national insurance employer contributions announced in the Budget.

The announcement comes amid warnings that staff in some surgeries could be made redundant and some care homes could be forced to close as a result of the change.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the tax increase on Wednesday as organizations representing care homes and nursing homes voiced concerns about the sector’s ability to plug the funding gap.

There are also concerns about the impact on GP surgeries; one practice manager suggests this could cost around £40,000 a year.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) said it had contacted Wes Streeting to seek assurances that the practices would be protected, like “the rest of the NHS and the public sector”.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the college, said: “We are writing to the Secretary of State for Health today demanding urgent assurances that GP practices will be given the same protection as the rest of the NHS and the public sector, and that the necessary funding will be received to cover these additional costs.

“We have very serious concerns about the impact of the increase in national insurance employer contributions on family medicine practices across the country; Many of them are already struggling to keep their doors open and make a living due to historic chronic underfunding.

“They are doing all they can to provide quality care to their patients in an environment of significant budget constraints and staff shortages, and this increased level of distrust will further increase these pressures.

“For some, this extra financial burden will be the final straw, forcing them to make difficult decisions about layoffs or even closing their practices, with our patients ultimately bearing the brunt.”

This is Shropshire GP Dr. It comes after Jess Harvey told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that training would be “really challenging”.

“During these contract negotiations for our new contract, if we don’t get a decent wage to cover national insurance inflation, then we’re going to be in a really tough spot,” he said.

“There will be practices to start layoffs. “There are practices already considering redundancies because it is so difficult to manage financially and if we can’t get enough money to continue running these practices then we won’t be able to provide the service people want.”

Paul Stanley, practice manager at Gas House Lane Surgery in Morpeth, Northumberland, also told the program the changes could cost his surgery around £40,000 a year.

Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrats’ health and social care spokesperson, said: “We are calling on the Chancellor to change course and exempt GPs from the tax increase.

“This new Government must not make the same mistakes as the Conservatives, fixing the GP crisis is crucial to saving the NHS.

“If people can be checked quicker, fewer people will go to hospital for treatment. That’s better for patients, better for the NHS and better for taxpayers.”

Downing Street suggested GP surgeries could receive extra support later in the year.

A spokesman for No 10 said contract workers, including GPs, were not eligible for an exemption from the NIC increase, which he said was consistent with previous governments’ approach.

“There is a general process by which departments, for example the Department of Health, approve their funding for general practices,” he said.

The spokesman added: “I believe this is part of the annual GP contracting process. “I believe that will happen later in the year.”

Meanwhile, a care group has called on the Government to exempt social care providers from pay rises or protection funding.

Mike Padgham, chief executive of the Independent Care Group (ICG), said: “The government needs to do something and it needs to do it quickly because I am already hearing from providers that this could be the final straw for some.”

Geoff Butcher, of Blackadder Corporation, which owns a number of care homes in England, said he believed an increase in national insurance contributions (NICs) for employers could lead to some homes closing.

He told the Today programme: “We will absolutely not be taking on additional staff. We will have to reduce healing.

“And I know colleagues in other services are considering reducing staff numbers and I think this will further accelerate the pace of home closures and the handing back of contracts to other services, including home care.”

He said the £600 million funding for local authorities for both adult and children’s social care announced in the Budget would equate to just £350 per worker in the social care sector “if it were to happen”.

“Our personnel expenses constitute 80 percent of our total costs. “We have nowhere to go on this.”

He said he “finds it extraordinary that governments find billions every year to support the likes of Ukraine, but we cannot find the money to support our very vulnerable people”; I think this has a great reflection on our society.

Care England, which represents adult social care providers, said the national insurance increase, combined with pay rises, would leave the sector with “an additional funding gap of approximately £2.4bn to meet”.

On social care, Number 10 said: “We are taking action to support the social care sector more generally. “There is a real-term increase in local government core spending power and I think at least £600 million of new grant funding has been made available to respond to pressures in the sector.”