Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has joined with the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) to launch a joint petition calling for greater investment in primary care.
The bodies are warning that years of underfunding are putting essential community services at risk.
The campaign brings together doctors and pharmacists in a shared call for policymakers to deliver a genuine shift of resources into community healthcare
Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP co-lead, said: “General practice and pharmacy recognised the vital importance of funding community care.
Primary care
“Primary care has been starved of funding for the past decade yet has been expected to do more and more with less.
“Genuine hospital to community shift has not happened despite many reviews and plans. The reality is there has been a shift to hospital funding away from community.”
IPA chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck said primary care ‘is the front door of the NHS, yet it continues to receive a relatively small share of the overall NHS budget’.
She said: “Community pharmacies and GP practices are being asked to do more while facing enormous financial and operational pressures.”
Joint petition
The petition calls for a primary care investment guarantee, which would commit the Government to:
- Increase the proportion of NHS funding invested in primary care every year for the remainder of this Parliament
- Publish annual figures showing whether that proportion is actually increasing
- Ensure the investment supports the whole primary-care network: community pharmacy, general practice, dentistry and optometry
The petition states: “For years, successive governments have promised to move more NHS care out of hospitals and closer to people’s homes through NHS primary care services via frontline healthcare providers like community pharmacies, GP practices, dentists and optometrists.
“Yet primary care services, currently receive just 8.2 per cent of overall NHS spending in England.
NHS budget
“If the Government is serious about delivering on its promise to bring care closer to home and saving NHS resources by preventing more patients from ending up in A&E or needing expensive hospital stay, then a greater proportion of the NHS budget must be directed towards primary care.”
Tickets are still available for DAUK’s joint conference with Doctors For The NHS (DFNHS) on Saturday 10 October at Bedern Hall in York.
In-person attendance is £50 per delegate limited to 50 places. Book your place now.
The conference will also be streamed live to enable colleagues to participate remotely. Online attendance is £25 and places are available to book now.