NHS England is planning to set GPs a new target of seeing 90% of all ‘clinically urgent’ patients on the same day.
A three-year planning document published last week by the commissioning body sets as one of its targets to ‘improve access to primary care, including reducing unwarranted variation in access’.
Specifically, it said the aim is to ‘ensure 90% of clinically urgent patients are seen on the same day’.
According to the document, that sets out health plans until 2028/29, NHS England will ‘consult with the profession on this new ambition and approach’.
It said that next month it will publish a ‘model neighbourhood framework’ which will set out the ‘definitions, goals and scope of neighbourhood health’, along with ‘priority actions’ for 2026/27.
NHS England will produce ‘model system archetypes’ that will outline different archetypes for the commissioning and provision of neighbourhood health services, including the new contract types announced in the 10-year plan (single and multi-neighbourhood provider contracts, and integrated health organisation contracts).
It also asks general practice to ‘continue prioritising’ the use of Advice and Guidance ‘prior to, or instead of, a planned care referral’ where clinically appropriate, excluding referrals for urgent suspected cancer.
It said: ‘There should be a move to all referrals going via Advice and Guidance for the 10 specialties at provider level which have the most potential for this model to be effective. We expect ICBs to support this, and bring it to life, through their strategic commissioning for 2026/27.’
The document also said that from April next year, the NHS must be able to make ‘at least 95% of appointments available’ after appropriate triage via the NHS App ‘across all care settings’.
It further explained that building ‘on existing general practice action plans’, in 2026/27 all ICBs must:
- ensure practices are delivering the 2025/26 GP contract (including recent 1 October changes) and the 2026/27 GP contract from next April, including improving and providing ‘good access whether by phone, online or walk in throughout core hours’. This includes all patients knowing on the day how their request will be managed, and ‘increasing the number of people who can see their preferred healthcare professional’.
- put in place action plans to continue to ‘improve contract oversight’ and ‘tackle unwarranted variation’. ensure additional capacity is commissioned to meet demand out-of-hours and over surge periods including bank holidays and weekends
- support primary care providers to deploy ambient voice technologies, ensuring the time freed up is used to see additional patients.
It said: ‘Central to the broader reforms we are delivering is continuing to focus on improving access to
general practice – this is critical to not only managing wider system pressures but also rebuilding the public’s faith in its NHS.’
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘This is the bold change this government promised in our NHS. Our ambition is nothing short of the fastest turn around in the history of the health service. Millions more patients will be treated on time, with better cancer outcomes and quicker access to GPs. The NHS will be brought into the digital age, and community care will be given the priority it deserves.’
NHS England CEO Sir Jim Mackey said: ‘For too long the NHS has been stuck in a doom-loop of not being able to properly plan beyond each financial year and responding to overly-bureaucratic processes that have stifled local leadership and innovation.
‘We have to get out of the trap of short term thinking and break the cycle of “just about managing”.’
In a statement in response to the document, the NHS Confederation said that it was ‘concerned about setting such a high target for GPs to see same-day urgent cases’.
NHS Confed chief executive Matthew Taylor added: ‘While our members recognise the need to prioritise access to general practice, adding such an ambitious target for the first time could significantly impact on the ability to deliver proactive and personalised care to patients which will risk worsening health outcomes and impact on the rest of the system.’
Plans for managers and leaders
A Management and Leadership Framework will be published this autumn, setting a code of practice and standards and competencies for clinical and non-clinical leaders and managers at 5 levels, from entry level to board, NHS England’s medium planning framework said.
This should be embedded into recruitment and appraisal practices by ICBs and providers, NHS England explained. And all leaders and managers should self-assessing against the code and standards, while senior leaders should obtain 360 degree feedback. Digital tools will be provided during 2026/27 to facilitate this.
In 2026/27, a new College of Executive and Clinical Leadership will be created. A national curriculum and interactive online modules will be published in 2026/27, offering time-efficient leadership and management development at each level.
Parts of this article were first published by our sister title Pulse
