New health secretary Wes Streeting says he is committed to reversing the funding shortfall observed across general practice and primary care as a whole.
On a visit to London’s Abbey Medical Centre with NHS England’s (NHSE) CEO, Amanda Pritchard, Streeting vowed to bring back the family doctor — a core part of the Labour Party’s manifesto during election campaigning.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s first official visit being to a GP surgery is symbolic of the direction in which the new government intends to shift resources and focus care.
“I’m determined to make the NHS more of a neighbourhood health service, with more care available closer to people’s homes,” said Streeting.
This includes the trialling of Neighbourhood Health Centres, which would bring existing community services under one roof.
The opposite situation also lends itself to patients presenting at emergency departments, which the health secretary says is “worse for them and more expensive for the taxpayer.”
When you consider that polling data from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine before the election implied that over nine in 10 A&E chiefs believed that patients were coming to harm as a result of the their department’s condition, taking pressure off emergency departments is in everyone’s interest.
“GP teams are the bedrock of the NHS but right across the country, they are under huge pressure and working incredibly hard to deliver more appointments,” said NHSE’s Pritchard.
The Royal College of General Practitioners recently warned that the appointment pace being set by GPs is unsustainable, with NHSE figures suggesting that 5.2 million more appointments were delivered this May than in the same month during 2019 — all with a workforce that is 480 GPs lighter.
Pritchard continued: “We know there is much more work to do to support them and to transform primary care services. We look forward to working with the government and colleagues in primary care to do that.”
Leaders from across the sector have already set out what Wes Streeting’s priorities should be.
Image credit: iStock
