Riding the tides of change

Primary care in England is facing a future that feels very much like it is in a state of flux and could look remarkably different to general practice today.The NHS has already been through multiple upheavals in the last decade or so, from the major health service reorganisation resulting from the Health and Social Care Bill introduced by the then Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, in 2012, to the dramatic shifts in primary care delivery that occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.Despite all of this change and the ongoing decline in fully qualified GPs per head of population in the UK, NHS primary care is still performing and delivered 4.7 million more appointments in February 2025 than in February 2020.