More than 1,000 GP practices in England are to receive a share of around £102m to refurbish their premises and working spaces.
Earlier this week, the Government confirmed the availability of a new pot of money for 2025/26 called the Primary Care Utilisation Modernisation Fund – an investment that was first announced in 2024’s Autumn Budget.
The cash will help to develop new consultation and treatment rooms and facilities, and be used to improve the existing infrastructure for the GP practice workforce, the Department of Health and Social Care has said.
These upgrades will help practices deliver an additional 8.3 million patient appointments a year, it added.
All 42 ICBs prioritised surgeries in their area to be allocated funds, with Greater Manchester having the highest number of practices – 165 – participating in the scheme.
In total, 1,027 practices will receive financial support to carry out refurbs (the full list is available here) although it is understood that a pipeline of potential future projects and schemes has also been identified.
The first upgrades are expected to begin in the summer and all projects should be completed by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.
Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care, said bringing GP premises up to a similar condition across England is ‘important to improve patient experiences of NHS services, while making primary care a better working environment as we seek to retain and recruit more staff’.
She added: ‘It will also help to create additional space and extend the capacity of current premises as we improve access further and bring care closer to the communities where people live as part of the 10 Year Health Plan.’
Chair of the RCGP Professor Kamila Hawthorne said the announcement is ‘an encouraging interim measure’ but that it needed to be followed up by long-term investment.
She highlighted that it’s last survey of members found that two in five GPs considered their premises unfit for purpose.
She said: ‘This not only makes for a poor experience for both patients and practice staff, but it restricts the care and services a practice can provide. Nearly 90% of respondents to our survey said their practice didn’t have enough consulting rooms, and three quarters didn’t have enough space to take on additional GP trainees.
‘Today’s announcement is an encouraging interim measure that shows the Government is listening and acknowledges that inadequate GP infrastructure needs to be addressed.’
Lord Darzi’s independent report, published last autumn, also found that the primary care estate is ‘plainly not fit for purpose’ as 20% of the GP estate predates the founding of the health service in 1948.
‘Many GP surgeries [are ] housed in inflexible, outdated buildings that cannot enable safe, high-quality care outdated,’ said Lord Ara Darzi , adding that this new investment ‘marks a crucial turning point in addressing this long-standing issue, helping create the modern, purpose-built primary care facilities that patients and staff deserve.’
Earlier this year, a report that Management in Practice contributed to on the general practice workforce showed that surgeries are suffering shortfalls in key roles including GPs partly because of a lack of premises space.
- Coming soon, our new comprehensive guide for practice managers and GPs on how to manage the full renovation process, including how to access funds.
Renovate, Revamp, Develop – a guide to improving GP premises will be published at the end of May.
