20,000 support staff for GPs as part of overhaul

NHS bosses have revealed that more than 20,000 physios, pharmacists and paramedics are to be recruited to work alongside under-pressure GPs.

Providing continuing care to patients in the community, the new staff will work with GPs, taking responsibility for some of the 300 million bookings made with practices each year. GP practices will be funded to recruit some of the staff directly, with NHS England estimating that there should be 22,000 extra physios, pharmacists, paramedics and link workers in place by 2024.

The changes have been announced as part of a five-year contract brokered with the British Medical Association, funded by the extra £4.5 billion that will be invested in community services by 2023 under the terms of the 10-year NHS Plan published earlier this year. It is hoped that each practice should have its own pharmacist, to carry out medicines reviews, and a social-prescribing link worker in the near future.

While GP leaders have largely welcomed the move, they have also warned that extra doctors were also needed, with the number of full-time equivalents working having fallen by 400 in the past three years. The Royal College of GPs estimates the nation is 6,000 GPs short of what it needs

Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: "This five year deal unarguably represents the biggest boost to primary care in more than fifteen years, giving patients more convenient services at their local GP surgery while breaking down the divide between family doctors and community health services. It provides the practical foundation for the big service improvements in the NHS Long Term Plan. Patients across England – in towns, villages and cities – will all begin to see the benefits, beginning this year. And it allows us to keep all that’s best about British general practice while future-proofing it for the decade ahead.”