NEWS: Failure to prioritise primary care

As reported by GP Online, despite NHS plans, report highlights persistent underinvestment in primary care services, leading to prolonged policy setbacks

The proportion of DHSC funding targeted at primary care slumped from 8.9% in 2015/16 to 8.1% in 2021/22, with the lion’s share of funding spent on hospitals despite the vast majority of NHS activity taking place in general practice and other community services, a King’s Fund report warns.

The report says future growth in NHS funding should be targeted disproportionately at primary care – with incentives for more healthcare staff to work in community settings and to pay for an overhaul of premises.

Since the 1970s, the report says, governments have said they plan to make the health and care system ‘less hospital-focused’ and more primary care-centric. But it warns that ‘despite this oft-repeated vision, there has been a consistent failure to deliver or put in place the longer-term strategies needed to create the workforce and services required to deliver it’.

Primary care funding

The King’s Fund report, Making care closer to home a reality, warns: ‘The failure to grow and invest in primary and community health and care services despite the often-avowed intention to do so must rank as one of the most significant and long-running failures of policy and implementation in the NHS and social care over the past 30 years.

‘There have been failures at multiple levels, particularly due to factors rooted in institutional and organisational culture, which have combined to frustrate progress. People are now paying the price for this in terms of gaps in services for patients and the public.’

NHS Confederation director of policy Dr Layla McCay said: ‘We know from analysis we published last year that the economic case for investing in primary and community care is clear. Every £1 invested in these services brings back £14 to the economy in gross value added (GVA)

‘Investing upstream is critical for the sustainability of services and reducing pressure on hospitals and moving to more preventative models of care.’