NHS Confederation responds to the Health Foundation's warning of a workforce shortage in primary care

Responding to the Health Foundation’s latest analysis of general practice, Ruth Rankine director of the NHS Confederation’s primary care network, said:

“Despite the significant workforce challenges they are facing which, as this research highlights, risk continuing to rise for years to come, primary care teams are carrying out record levels of appointments.

“Providing around three in five of GP appointments face-to-face, primary care is also ensuring they are at the forefront of digital healthcare offering patients remote consultations where clinically appropriate.

“But to maintain this level of activity and respond to rising demand for healthcare, like the rest of the NHS, primary care is in desperate need of more staff. 

“The last thing primary care leaders want is for public satisfaction in the NHS to dip further but there is a significant staffing gap that is, at the moment, standing in the way of us giving every patient the care they want.  

"The Government has rightly set extremely high expectations of the NHS but they must now also provide the support to deliver that in primary care.”