Health Bill — hearing of 2 July 2026: transcript & video

00:02 - 00:34

Speaker 2

Order. We are now sitting in public and the proceedings are being broadcast. I'd like to remind members to switch all electronic devices to silent and please feel free to take jackets off. We start today with group 29 and amendment 60 to clause 43, with which we will debate amendment 61. I call Dr. Danny Chambers to move amendment 60.

00:34 - 03:12

Speaker 3

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, speaking to amendment 60 and amendment 61. These would introduce primary care investment standards requiring integrated care boards to increase spending on primary care services at least in line with the growth of their total programme healthcare funding. And in previous sessions we've discussed the importance of primary care, so I'll be very brief speaking to these, I know we've got a lot to get through today. But the primary care investment standard is very similar to the mental health investment standard and that would set a clear benchmark that we would then hold the Secretary of State to.

Primary care is the very frontline of our health service. It must be, it is vital to stop the rest of the health system becoming overburdened. And issues like corridor care and long ambulance handovers can often be as a direct result of the system's current failure to properly shift resources and focus into primary care and community care, so we can catch diseases earlier and prevent people going into hospital. So if people cannot get GP appointments, dentistry appointments, we see the load transferred to what are not only the most efficient parts of the NHS when it's dealing with routine issues, but it's also the most expensive part of the NHS. So people turn up to A&E when they could have had a doctor's appointment, it's hugely expensive as well as not ideal for the individual.

And although over 90% of a patient's direct experience of the NHS is through primary care and GP practices, currently less than 10% of the NHS budget in England is spent on primary care. And despite years of, you know, all governments promising to shift patient care out of hospitals and into the community, the NHS budget spent on general practice has fallen to its lowest point in the last 10 years. And the Royal College of GPs 2025 practice manager survey revealed that although 61% of practice managers say they need to expand the GP workforce to meet their patients' needs, 62% of them say that the lack of funding in general practice is a major barrier to preventing them from hiring the number of GPs that they need. It's been revealed that 22 out of 27 of the first round of neighbourhood health centres are already doing some of these functions now, they're simply being rebranded and slightly expanded. As we know with the NHS, like money is key, and there are constant important competing demands for the limited amount of funding, and protecting funding streams for primary care like this would ensure the government could actually provide the funds to back up their ambition of shifting care into the community.

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