Cross-sector bodies have warned the government that the 10 Year Health Plan will fail unless it invests in primary care.
The warning came as primary care groups from across the UK came together at a Parliamentary event - Moving from Crisis to Recovery - to urge MPs to ensure the sector is financially secure.
Organisations involved include the British Dental Association, British Medical Association (BMA), Community Pharmacy England, Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee and the Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers.
Together, they have called on the government to help secure a sustainable and long-term future for primary care – and to ensure primary care is properly resourced to deliver a shift of care into neighbourhoods and communities.
They want government to use primary care to prioritise care closer to home and patient choice; urgently invest in primary care to future-proof the NHS; give primary care a role to shape the future of neighbourhood health services under government direction; and improve digital infrastructure and IT connectivity to support efficient community care.
Dr Katie Bramall, chair of the GPs’ committee for England at the BMA, said that primary care has been ‘undervalued for too long by successive governments with the quality of patient care deteriorating as a result’.
She said general practice urgently needs to be ‘rebuilt on a foundation of sustainable investment’.
Dr Bramall described how investing in primary care helps ease pressure on secondary care by reducing waiting lists and ‘providing continuity of care in the community’.
Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England, said: ‘Community pharmacy teams, like our primary care colleagues, are holding up the frontline with extraordinary commitment, but goodwill alone cannot sustain vital services.
‘Without urgent, significant investment, the foundation of the NHS will continue to erode.’
The call comes amid concern about the delivery of the 10 Year Health Plan and the government’s aim to move care back into communities and neighbourhoods.
David Hewlett, director of policy and strategy at the Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers, said: ‘We all back the shift from hospital to the community, but this requires funding to follow the patient and a strategic steer from central government - otherwise the NHS will not deliver the 10 Year Plan.’
Earlier this month, MPs warned the government that its neighbourhood health plan will not be delivered if community work remains ‘undervalued’.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that improving access to primary care is an essential part of reducing A&E waiting times, as he announced calls for a new law to end 12-hour waits.
A Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) report, published on 22 January, urged the government to explain how plans for family hubs will work with neighbourhood health centres.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been approached for comment.