Almost 80% of general practice nursing staff are ‘unsatisfied’ with how the government has handled general practice so far, an exclusive survey has suggested.
A significant majority (78.5%) of general practice nursing staff responding to a Nursing in Practice survey said they were ‘unsatisfied’ with how the government had approached general practice since coming into power last summer.
The Nursing in Practice survey, which was carried out earlier this month, draws on results from 280 general practice nursing staff and covers key issues facing the workforce.
What do nurses think about the government?
One practice nurse said general practice was ‘forgotten’ by the government, with focus often geared towards secondary and tertiary care settings.
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Another felt that the work of practice nursing staff was often misunderstood by ministers.
‘There doesn’t appear to be any understanding of the unique roles and care provision by nurses,’ they said.
Overall, slightly more (40.5%) suggested they were ‘quite unsatisfied’ with the government’s handling, compared to 38% who were ‘very unsatisfied.’
Meanwhile, just 2% of respondents said they were ‘very satisfied’ with the government’s handling of general practice, and the same said they were ‘quite satisfied’ (2%).
Some 17% said they were neither satisfied not unsatisfied.
An enhanced level practice nurse described the government as saying ‘all the right things’ but failing to ‘invest properly’ in general practice.
‘They need to ensure that if practices continue to be in the hands of partnerships that staff members have exactly the same terms and conditions as they do in the trusts, otherwise our clinical numbers will continue to decline,’ they added.
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Another respondent flagged how practice nursing staff are still ‘far behind’ NHS employed nurses when it comes to pay and opportunities.
Last month, a separate exclusive Nursing in Practice survey on pay – published together with our sister title Management in Practice – showed that general practice nurse (GPN) pay lags behind the earnings of their hospital counterparts who have the benefit of being on Agenda for Change contracts.
In December 2024, the RCN used another of Nursing in Practice’s survey findings in its evidence to the independent pay review body for GPs and called for its future recommendations to ‘expressly and explicitly’ include the nursing profession.
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The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
This survey was open between 31 March and 14 April 2025, collating responses using the SurveyMonkey tool. A total of 280 GP nursing staff from across the UK responded to these questions. The survey was advertised to our readers via our website and email newsletter, with a prize draw for a £200 voucher as an incentive to complete the survey. We asked for practice codes or practice names and postcodes, and asked them to confirm what role they held. We removed those with duplicate email addresses, and searched for duplicate IP addresses, removing obvious duplicate entries. The survey was unweighted, and we do not claim this to be scientific – only a snapshot of the GP nursing staff population.
