The ring-fenced funding will support GP practices to proactively identify and provide additional care for patients they consider most at risk of becoming seriously unwell with PCNs be able to receive £126 for each eligible patient supported.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: ‘If we want to take the pressure off our hospitals this winter, we've got to keep people well at home. So we're backing GPs to reach the most vulnerable people early, before a small problem turns into a trip to A&E.'

The extra support will be particularly targeted at patients with heart disease, frailty, emphysema and other types of COPD, and could include medication reviews, health checks and nurse-led respiratory clinics for up to 300,000 people across the country.

Since October, practices can use GP reimbursement funding to bring in locum GPs, giving them greater freedom to respond to local demand.

The NHS received £190m in the Budget to manage winter pressures, alongside £140m for 14 new urgent care schemes. A further 25 new or expanded urgent care sites will be open this winter, including a £29m same-day emergency care unit which opened on 20 October at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent.