The Future of Primary Care: National Voices’ 2023 Online Conference

On 28 June 2023, National Voices are holding an online national conference to bring together primary care leaders and teams, voluntary sector organisations and people with lived experience to discuss priority actions for the future of primary care. The focus of the conference will be on making what matters to people matter in primary care. We are delivering this event with generous support from Astra Zeneca, Diabetes UK, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency*.

The conference will include a range of high profile speakers and thought leaders within primary care, including National Voices’ incoming Chief Executive, Jacob Lant, and National Voices’ Interim Chief Executive, Sarah Sweeney. While recognising the significant pressures primary care teams are under currently, the conference will provide space for reflection and inspiration about what might be possible in the future. This event marks the culmination of the following three National Voices led projects and launch of the related reports, which attendees will have early access to:

A vision for the future of primary care

In our work at National Voices, every day we hear about ways in which primary care professionals have made a positive difference to people living with ill health and disability. However, we also increasingly hear that the current state of play for primary care services is not working – for people accessing these services or for the primary care workforce. We find ourselves at a crossroads. By analysing insights from our members – over 200 health and care charities – and testing these through a series of roundtables convening key stakeholders within primary care, we have established a series of proposals for the reform of primary care which National Voices believe would make the biggest difference for people living with ill health and disability, and in particular people experiencing health inequalities, whilst also supporting the primary care workforce.

Accessible and inclusive communication within primary care: What matters to people living with ill health and accessibility needs

Primary care services are the front door to the NHS – they are the first port of call when we feel unwell and the main coordinator of care when we are living with ill health. Yet, at National Voices, we often hear examples about people who have not had their communication needs met within primary care. This includes Deaf people, people with learning disabilities, people who don’t speak English fluently, people with low or no literacy and many others. This project set out to understand the key issues faced by people with specific communication needs within primary care and what they feel would make the biggest difference, as well as key actions primary care leaders and teams can take to support inclusive communication.

A shift to multidisciplinary teams in General Practice: Understanding what this means for people experiencing health inequalities and frequent users of primary care services, and how to communicate the changes

The model of general practice is changing and, at the core of this, general practice is moving away from a model of ‘seeing a GP’ to a model that is ‘consulting with the multi-disciplinary team’. Primary care teams include over 15+ skilled roles, yet for many people accessing care, ‘going to the GP’ (the place) is synonymous with ‘seeing a GP’ (a doctor who is a general practitioner). This project set out to understand awareness and experience of multidisciplinary teams across two groups: frequent users of primary care services and those who experience health inequalities and are therefore at risk of poorer health outcomes. The project aims to use these insights to inform communications with the public about multi-disciplinary teams and to make early recommendations around changes to the model of general practice for populations who experience health inequalities and for frequent users of primary care services.

Please contact events@nationalvoices.org.uk with any questions. Agenda to follow shortly.

About our sponsors and funders

Astra Zeneca has provided a sponsorship grant towards our independent programme of work on the future of primary care.

Diabetes UK has provided funding to support co-production of our work on the future of primary care.

The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency have provided two grants through the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance for our independent work on inclusive communications in primary care and our work on multi-disciplinary teams in primary care.