The geography of fundholding in southwest England: implications for the evolution of primary care groups.

Using postcode-ED linkage to calculate patient-weighted deprivation indices for 330 general practices in southwest England, this study examines whether the populations served by fundholding and non-fundholding practices varied with respect to socio-economic status. Little evidence is found of systematic socio-economic bias in the uptake of fundholding. However, a distinct spatial pattern to the distribution of fundholding is revealed in this article, urban practices having adopted the scheme more readily than their rural and mixed rural/urban counterparts. As practice-level fundholding is replaced by commissioning at the locality level, such geographical variation is likely to be expressed in the way in which primary care groups evolve.