Joint Primary Care Statement on the Spending Review
Following on from last week’s Spending Review announcement, Community Pharmacy England has joined forces with other national primary care bodies to reiterate our call on Government to prioritise DHSC spending allocations towards primary care.
The joint statement, copied below, has been signed by Community Pharmacy England, the General Practitioner’s Committee England, the British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee and The National Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers.
The statement is made in addition to our organisations’ own sector-specific responses to the Spending Review. You can read Community Pharmacy England’s statement here.
We are briefing supportive and engaged MPs, including those who attended the joint Primary Care Parliamentary Drop-in event in January, asking them to raise the need for primary care to be fully resourced following the outcome of the Spending Review in upcoming Parliamentary debates and discussions, in line with this joint statement.
This is alongside Community Pharmacy England’s ongoing work to raise the need for a long-term sustainable funding and operational model for community pharmacies with Parliamentarians.
The full joint statement is:
Joint Primary Care Statement on the Spending Review
“We welcome the Government’s commitment to the NHS reiterated in the Spending Review announcement. We note the Government’s commitment, and the Department of Health’s number one priority, to shift care from hospitals to community, and move from sickness to prevention. Primary care providers will be instrumental in driving this reform and are enthusiastic about working together to support these critical shifts.
However, due to the pressures all parts of primary care are facing due to an historic focus on specialist settings, bureaucracy, and poor workforce planning by NHS England – as well as funding cuts to some of our sectors – it is clear there is little capacity to deliver the reforms needed, and improve the care people receive closer to home, without further investment in primary care. The decision regarding allocations within the DHSC budget is the single opportunity in this Parliamentary cycle to transform investment into primary care. Of the 1.5million patients treated by the NHS each day, over three quarters of these interactions take place within the primary care setting: their sole NHS experience. The key to future election success lies with us, working with you.
We look forward to further details and meaningful actions to be announced in the coming days and we urge the Government to work closely with us, as your primary care bodies, to begin the long-term process to rebuild primary care and help deliver on the Government’s priorities for the NHS as part of the 10 year plan. This includes implementing patient-centred, more efficient ways of working and fully funded primary care expansion plans linked to investment directives, cementing primary care’s role in planning, designing and leading healthcare delivery.”
Katie Bramall-Stainer, Chair, the General Practitioner’s Committee England
Shiv Pabary, Chair, British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee
Janet Morrison, Chief Executive, Community Pharmacy England
Paul Carroll, Chair, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee
Harjit Sandhu, Chief Executive, The National Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers
