26,000 additional primary care professionals have been recruited a year earlier than the March 2024 target – including 4,515 here in the North East and Yorkshire. Working in GP surgeries, new dieticians, paramedics, physiotherapists and care co-ordinators provide new capacity for direct patient care, and also free up GP time.
Also, we delivered 2m more GP appointments this March than a year ago – 83,500 more per working day
Moving forward, in the Government’s recent ‘Primary Care Recovery Plan’ – we are:
- Tackling the 8am rush – £35,000 per GP practice equivalent in new technology, better phone systems and easier digital access
- Providing £645m so pharmacists can treat common conditions and supply prescription-only medicines including ear pain; severe sore throat; skin infections and urinary infections
- Enabling 2.5m people to access pharmacy blood pressure checks – up from 900K carried out last year – lowering risks of heart attacks or strokes
- Cutting bureaucracy – freeing £37,000 per practice by cutting back targets
- Enabling patients to now self-refer for some services, including physiotherapy, hearing tests, and podiatry, without seeing their GP
- Delivering an extra 26,000 clinicians and 50m appointments by March 2024
- Lifting 8,900 GPs out of annual tax charges by reforming pension rules
