Primary care

Male Patient And Doctor Have Consultation In Hospital Room

Primary care is at the heart of the care provided by the NHS. Primary care covers a range of services which tend to be our first port of call when we need help with our health. This includes: 

  • GP surgeries 
  • Community pharmacies 
  • Dentists, and 
  • Opticians. 

Over a lifetime, 85% of our contact with the NHS will be in GP surgeries. In mid and south Essex, approximately 25,000 consultations are delivered every weekday for our local population.  

What we want to achieve  

We know that people in certain areas struggle to get through to their GP surgery to access the help they need. With a growing population and workforce challenges, GP services and local staff are also under intense pressure.  

Lots of work is underway to help people get quicker, easier access to important primary care services. This includes helping people to access alternative services without needing to see their GP first, improving digital infrastructure and doing everything possible to attract new staff. 

The NHS in mid and south Essex is committed to:  

  • Improving access to primary care services and offering more appointments at evenings and weekends. 
  • Giving people better access to health records and online services through increased use of technology.  
  • Recruiting and retaining more staff. By increasing the amount and range of healthcare professionals, we can better meet the needs of our population and ensure people are seen by the right person at the right time for their needs.  
  • Helping ensure local GPs have more time to focus on people with complex health needs. GP surgeries are now working collaboratively, meaning they can deliver more proactive care to those at risk of ill health as part of integrated neighbourhood teams to help residents access the right care in the right place.  
  • Sharing best practice and learning to keep communities healthy, reduce variation in services, and help to reduce health inequalities.  
Find out more about our local plans to improve access to GP services and how we are working to do this Find out about how community pharmacies are offering a more convenient way to get clinical advice and treatment for minor health concerns Our local plans to support improvement in access to primary care are aligned with the NHS Long-Term Plan as well as the national delivery plan for recovering access to primary care

Where we are now  

Great progress has been made, with new healthcare professionals recruited across GP surgeries to support local people.  

We now have over 600 new professionals working in the wider primary care workforce. This includes physiotherapists, mental health practitioners, care co-ordinators, social prescribers, paramedics, and clinical pharmacists. You can find out more about these healthcare practitioners here. 

Primary care strategy 

We are in the process of reviewing the latest strategy and making new recommendations for the future to continue to transform and improve primary care services in mid and south Essex. You can read more about our current plans in our primary care strategy document: 

Read our primary care strategy

We want to build on the benefits we are already seeing from better collaboration and growth in our primary care workforce team.  

As part of our strategy refresh, we are engaging extensively with both clinical and system partners including Healthwatch, primary care staff, local authorities, and local hospitals. With insight from system partners, we can make recommendations on key areas of focus based on robust data analysis and local insight.  

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