Back in May, the government announced that a £102 million cash injection would facilitate modernising over 1,000 GP surgeries, allowing them to create space to see more patients, improve their patient care, and boost productivity, resulting in an expected 8.3 million extra appointments each year
A primary care crisis
The funding is a much-welcome investment, seeing as primary care received the lowest share of NHS funding in 2023-24, at just 8.4 per cent, and saw it fall below inflation. A new contract in March 2024 included a 1.9 per cent baseline uplift, but was still below inflation levels. This is a marked decrease from a high point of 9.2 per cent on NHS spending in 2019-20.
NHS funding has historically been skewed towards the acute sector, namely hospitals, which was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic: it is not a rare occurrence for hospitals to use their capital budgets to plug shortages on day-to-day spending, and still needing more money to perform urgent, time-constrained services, which differs from the majority of primary care’s job requirements. This is despite general practices receiving the most contact with the public, with an estimated 300 million appointments each year.
A February 2025 poll by the Health Foundation and Ipsos found that 38 per cent of those surveyed ranked easily accessing GP appointments as their top priority for the changes they’d like to see to the NHS under Starmer’s leadership. This is significantly ahead of other top priorities, such as improving A&E waiting times (33 per cent), staff retention (29 per cent), and routine hospital services (27 per cent). In 2023, only half (52.8 per cent) of patients were satisfied with their appointment times, a huge decrease from 64.7 per cent in 2019. Clearly, the situation is only getting worse.
Both a crumbling GP estate and a shortage of new GPs contribute to too many patients scrambling for not enough appointments. In 2024, the Institute for Government published a report, Delivering a general practice estate that is fit for purpose, that found that the NHS’s 2019 Long Term Plan, which introduced primary care networks, and the 2019 Conservative manifesto, which pledged to hire 6,000 more GPs, were largely unsuccessful. It warns that the NHS is unlikely to meet its Long Term Workforce Plan target of increasing new GP trainees by 50 per cent, from 4,000 in 2022 to 6,000 by 2032.
More GPs is crucial to unlocking more appointments, but in 2022, it was found that 22 per cent of 8,911 premises were built before the NHS was established in 1948. These buildings are cramped, crumbling, and outdated, with GPs reporting that 22.4 per cent of general practices are not fit for purpose. Having an agenda to increase the number of employees without simultaneously developing and upgrading the spaces they will work in is fruitless. A recent survey found that 88 per cent of GP respondents said they did not have a sufficient consulting room.
While a mass recruitment campaign would be invaluable, it is also crucial that capital investment increases at the same rate, especially as GPs harness more and more digital tools in buildings that cannot accommodate them.
Since 2015, the number of qualified GPs has been in decline, with 1,167 fewer in December 2024 than in December 2015, despite an ambitious target in place to recruit 6,000 more by early 2024. However, it is difficult to recruit, train, and host thousands more GPs in buildings that do not have the capacity.
Moves towards progress
In the Autumn Budget, the government allocated £100 million, as part of an increased chunk of funding for the Department for Health and Social Care, to upgrade GP facilities, as well as hiring an extra 1,000 GPs. But the funding for upgrading GP practices was initially just for 200 surgery upgrades, rather than the new figure of 1,000.
The recent announcement follows the new 2025-26 GP contract that came with an extra £889 million, as announced in December.
In April, the government announced that over 1,503 GPs were hired from October 2024, which contributed to the delivery of achieving two million appointments seven months early, but did not address a primary estate that struggled to cope with current numbers, never mind an influx of new employees.
This funding represents the biggest investment in GP facilities in five years, with several deprived general practices being able to benefit, and is the first national capital fund for primary care estates since 2020. The first refurbishments are set to take place this summer for around one in six GP practices, and to be delivered up until April 2026.
Awarded surgeries
Prospect Medical Practice in Norwich, for example, will be able to create new clinical rooms to deliver more consultations to its 7,000 patients.
Harden Health Centre in the Black Country will see vacant office spaces be converted into clinical consulting rooms, allowing more patients to access primary care and, vitally, more GPs to work in this practice.
Two surgeries in Redbridge, East London, have been awarded funding: Kenwood Medical Centre in Gants Hill and Loxford Polyclinic in Ilford. The former will use the funding to refurbish its ground and first floors to accommodate the relocation of up to two additional GP practices to create an extra 38,500 appointments each year, and the latter to create eight new clinical rooms, creating 22,000 extra appointments each year.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “[This] investment in improving GP surgeries is a much-needed step towards better access to care closer to home.
“Our reporting shows nearly one-third of patients struggle to book GP appointments, and we have long highlighted what matters in healthcare facilities: truly accessible spaces where everyone receives care with dignity. The potential for 8.3 million additional appointments from these refurbishments will make a real difference to communities waiting for care.
“Crucially, it delivers on what patients themselves have called for: modern, accessible spaces that support high-quality care. We look forward to seeing these upgrades rolled out, with a continued focus on ensuring patients everywhere get timely support in settings that support their dignity. This investment represents a meaningful step toward realising what patients have long been asking for.”
