Save the frontline of our NHS

Around 1,500 pharmacies have closed their doors permanently over the past few years, while local healthcare services continue to face increasing pressure.

Shift the Care. Shift the Funding.

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% of overall NHS spending in England.

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.

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