More than 1,000 GP practices in England will be given funding from the government for ‘quick fix’ estate upgrades this year.
The £102m cash injection is expected to stretch across around 1,000 GP surgeries, rather than 200 as initially stated when the funding was first announced in the autumn.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the capital fund will be used to ‘create additional space to see more patients, boost productivity and improve patient care, following years of neglect’.
As examples, the DHSC described how Prospect Medical Practice in Norwich would use the funding to ‘create new clinical rooms to deliver more patient consultations’, and in Harden Health Centre in Black Country, where ‘vacant office spaces’ will be converted into consultation rooms.
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But the funding, first mooted in the Budget last October, will be spread across significantly more GP practices than the 200 general practice estates that the government first suggested.
DHSC told our sister title Pulse that it has found a ‘smarter’ way to use exactly the same money, and that integrated care boards (ICBs) wanted to make smaller, quicker improvements, rather than fewer big projects.
Premises upgrades are expected to begin this summer, and the government said all projects ‘will be delivered during the 2025-26 financial year’.
The DHSC also claimed that these premises refurbishments will result in 8.3 million additional appointments each year.
The funding is available via the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation fund, which allocated money to ICBs in 2025/26 on a weighted population basis.
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said these were ‘simple fixes’ to support GP practices that ‘were left to ruin’.
‘It is only because of the necessary decisions we took in the Budget that we are able to invest in GP surgeries, start tackling the 8am scramble and deliver better services for patients,’ he added.
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In recent months Nursing in Practice has heard from GP surgeries working ‘on the brink’ with practice nursing staff working in inadequate and at times unsafe conditions, including at one surgery where a nurse is working in a former storage cupboard.
And last summer, practice nurses speaking at the Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) annual congress said they had been forced to turn cleaning cupboards into clinic rooms and were struggling to take on new nursing students because of a lack of appropriate space and buildings.
Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services, said: ‘Bringing GP premises up to a similar condition across England is important to improve patient experience of NHS services, while making primary care a better working environment as we seek to retain and recruit more staff.’
NHS England (NHSE) invited proposals from ICBs earlier this year, specifying that any upgrades ‘must be deliverable by March 2026’ and that approvals will ‘depend on value for money’ and the potential for ‘increased clinical appointments’.
Capital guidance from NHSE said: ‘Given the relatively limited availability of capital available in 2025/26, eligible projects include minor estates schemes focused on refurbishing or reconfiguring existing spaces to improve clinical capacity and productivity.’
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Last September, Lord Ara Darzi’s report on the state of the NHS challenged the lack of capital investment in the NHS, estimating that there is a shortfall of £37bn which ‘could have rebuilt or refurbished every GP practice in the country’.
Parts of this article were first published by our sister title Pulse
