Responding to Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care's speech on the future of primary care this morning, Ruth Rankine director of primary care at the NHS Confederation said:

“Primary care leaders will welcome Labour’s intention to shift the focus to managing demand through greater investment in prevention and out of hospital care and will be pleased to see an acknowledgement of the unsustainable pressures facing general practice.

“Our members will agree that reform is needed to cope with the pressures but within that we should protect what is working well whilst developing models of service delivery which takes advantage of new professional roles alongside greater use of technology. This is a journey many of them are already on and delivery of primary care at scale, whether through super partnerships, Primary Care Networks, Alliances and Federations, is already working and it is important that this entrepreneurial and efficient approach is supported to continue.

"While the promise of a mixture of increased funding alongside a desire for greater efficiencies is an understandable approach, leaders have spent the last decade straining to save money wherever and whenever they can, and might wonder where more efficiencies may be found. But they will recognise and be encouraged by the Shadow Health Secretary’s assessment that current investment in primary and community care, mental health services, and diagnostics is not comparable with other countries, and would urge that levelling up spending in these areas be made a priority.

“Key to unlocking the vast majority of problems the health service faces is staffing, so putting a figure on funding for an expansion of the workforce – along with acknowledgement of how long it will take – is welcome, but we also need investment in the current workforce so we are not facing a worse problem in the months ahead.”