General Practice in England continues to face immense pressure. Daily appointments surged to nearly 1.5 million in 2024, 22.5% more than in 2019; and have continued to rise in 2025. Years of underfunding, increasing workloads, higher patient complexity and rising bureaucracy have undermined GP’s and other practice staffs’ job satisfaction and patient perceptions.

However, the 2025 GP Patient survey, shows a small uptick in performance, suggesting that primary care staff efforts to improve people’s experience are beginning to bear fruit. Importantly, general practice is vital to the overall performance of the NHS, providing the significantly more patient contacts than any other NHS service.

The Government’s July 2025, Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, acknowledges that general practice is “the public’s most valued way of contacting the NHS, provides cost-effective models of joined-up care for complex patients and reduces overall levels of admissions to emergency care”. While it aims to regenerate general practice, it acknowledges that significant changes are needed. Our report reveals the extent of the challenges that need to be addressed and offers practical solutions for a more resilient and sustainable future.

Key facts and findings

The reality of general practice 

The sentiments expressed in our GP interviews and surveys in Spring 2025, on the state of general practice today were predominantly negative with our GPs feeling disheartened and frustrated but also cautiously optimistic believing that general practice could be revived.  When asked about how they hope to describe general practice in five-year’s time, GPs believe that it will be thriving offering proactive, personalised, and community centred services. 

A future proof primary care system

Given the unrelenting challenges facing general practice, productivity in terms of numbers of appointments has paradoxically risen alongside plummeting staff and patient satisfaction. However, optimism persists. GPs believe they can again become a cornerstone of an efficient, effective healthcare system.
 

How do we realise this ambition?

Despite the unrelenting challenges facing general practice, productivity in terms of numbers of appointments has paradoxically risen although this has largely been at the expense of staff and patient satisfaction.

1. Digital transformation: Unsurprisingly digitisation remains a critical driver for transformation. Our interviewees wanted policy makers to incentivise actions like the pragmatic use of AI and other technologies to improve efficiency, accelerate efforts to improve integration and interoperability, and balance the use of technology with relationship-based care.

2. The shift to prevention: Primary care has always provided preventative care including a unique role for general practice for whom preventative medicine is a fundamental part of every consultation from diagnosing and identifying the problem early and identifying solutions as quickly as possible to treat and/or halt the progression of disease. Specific interventions include health checks, disease screening, immunisations and providing advice and guidance to encourage healthy lifestyles.

3. System integration: General practices have a critical part to play in leading the system transformation needed for effective integrated working. The ‘single front door’ model of general practice needs to be replaced with a multiprofessional, integrated team approach, designing services around cohort needs and population health management principles with general practices playing a leading part in the development of the new neighbourhood health teams.

In addition, general practices need to take specific actions on system redesign, new ways of working and funding to deliver an economic, efficient and effective model of general practice (see our report for the specific actions that we believe will help).

Together, unlocking innovation and growth potential

Seizing this opportunity requires support from a partner who deeply understands the healthcare system, experienced in scaling operations, and who can help you effectively navigate complexity and disruption.

Deloitte is committed to helping you harness the power of collaboration, technology, data, and resilient business models to drive innovation and achieve sustainable success.
 

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