Primary care sector calls for urgent investment

A parliamentary event hosted this week (Tuesday 27 January) illustrated to MPs the need for urgent investment in primary care in order to future-proof the NHS.

National primary care bodies, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC), British Dental Association (BDA), British Medical Association (BMA), Community Pharmacy England, and the Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers, came together to make the case for sustainable investment.

The Moving from Crisis to Recovery Future of Primary Care parliamentary event emphasised the role of primary care as a foundation of the health and care system and “front door” for the NHS, as well as in continuity of care.

The five primary care sectors joined together with a set of shared objectives and four calls to action.

The primary care bodies called on the Government to use primary care to prioritise care closer to home and patient choice, urgently invest in primary care, and to improve digital infrastructure and IT connectivity for efficient community care.

The bodies also called for primary care to be given a role in shaping the future of Neighbourhood Health Services under Government direction.

MPs were encouraged to urge the Government to support these objectives and were invited to take action to call for direct political intervention, in order to secure a long-term sustainable future for the sector.

The event warned that if primary care continues to be “under-prioritised and underfunded” compared with the rest of the NHS and relative to its costs, “access and patient health” would continue to be put at risk.

Helen Maguire, MP for Epsom and Ewell and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for primary care and cancer, sponsored the event. She explained that the primary care organisations “underscored an important message: Primary care is the front door to our NHS, but is under increasing pressure.”

“The Government must provide comprehensive investment to secure a sustainable future for the NHS and its primary care services,” she said.

The Parliamentary event saw 21 MPs, peers and their staff present.

Paul Carroll, chair of the OFNC, shared that primary care already has the skills and infrastructure to “deliver more care, closer to home.”

The OFNC is the negotiating body for eye care in England, made up of leaders from the AOP, FODO, ABDO and BMA (for OMPs), working in partnership with the College of Optometrists and the General Optical Council.

Carroll said: “The evidence shows that expanding NHS services such as those delivered in High Street optical practices relieves pressure on hospitals and A & Es, gives patients faster local access and choice, and delivers on the Government’s neighbourhood health ambitions. But to succeed we need to see a commitment to proper investment that will make services both resilient and sustainable.”

“We continue to work with our primary care partners to ensure that chronic underfunding across sectors is both recognised and addressed,” he added.

We need to see a commitment to proper investment that will make services both resilient and sustainable

Dr Katie Bramall, BMA GPCE chair, said: “Primary care – the front door of the NHS – has been undervalued for too long by successive Governments with the quality of patient care deteriorating as a result.”

Describing “dwindling resource and patient demand spiralling out of control,” Bramall outlined the need for a foundation of sustainable investment.

She shared: “A fully-resourced primary care system benefits everyone by reducing waiting lists, easing pressure off of hospitals, allowing clinicians to deliver the care that patients deserve but, most importantly, providing continuity of care in the community, which is proven to reduce far more costly, urgent, emergency and elective care episodes in hospitals.”

A fully resourced primary care system benefits everyone

Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England, called primary care the “NHS’ first line of defence,” highlighting that it has been “left underfunded for far too long.”

“The united call from across primary care is a clear message to government: if ministers want to protect access to vital healthcare, keep people well for longer, and deliver care closer to home, they must invest urgently in the services that the public rely on every day,” she said.

Eddie Crouch, chair of the BDA, emphasised, “what tens of millions of our patients need is real commitment, underpinned by sustainable investment.”

Reflecting on the event, David Hewlett, director of policy and strategy at the Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers, described how all sectors of primary care had come together to promote the shared goals.

“We all back the shift from hospital to the community, but this requires funding to follow the patient and a strategic steer from central government – otherwise the NHS will not deliver the 10-Year Plan,” he said.