Shift the Care. Shift the Funding.
Governments have promised for years to move more NHS care out of hospitals and closer to people's homes. Despite that, NHS resources have kept flowing towards hospitals. Lord Darzi's independent review found the hospital share of the NHS budget rose from 47% in 2006 to 58% in 2022, concluding that "in practice, the reverse has happened." Primary care, including community pharmacy, now accounts for just 8.2% of overall NHS spending in England.
What we're asking for
The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), in collaboration with Doctors' Association UK, is calling on the Government to introduce a:
Primary Care Investment Guarantee
This 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
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