This report is a flexible summary, with the aim of sharing and highlighting a wide range of data and policy information relating to London general practice published in a given week. Where we view information to be of significant interest it is reproduced directly below the links to make the key points quicker to digest.
Please feel free to share any useful stats/links you think we could include in future reports.
Official bodies
NHS Digital
- All recent data releases can be seen here.
- Letter: Broadening the 700,000 urgent care commitment [23/2].
- Guidance: Standardising community health services – core component descriptions [23/2].
- Letter: Changes to the GP Contract in 2026/27 [24/2].
- Template: Experience of care improvement self-assessment [24/2].
- Policy: NHS England’s statement on information on health inequalities (duty under section 13SA of the National Health Service Act 2006) [25/2].
- Regulatory: NHS Federated Data Platform data protection impact assessment – National Data Integration Tenant minimum viable product [27/2].
Department of Health and Social Care
- Guidance: Doing business with the health sector: a guide for buyers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) [24/2].
- A clear, practical guide to help buyers and SMEs build a fair, inclusive environment that can deliver better health outcomes and support SME growth.
- Press release: Better access to GPs with same-day appointments for urgent care [24/2].
- Press release: Funding boost to support patients to stay in and return to work [25/2].
- Press release: Health service to save millions with boost to electrify NHS fleet [27/2].
UK Health Security Agency
- Guidance: Influenza vaccines marketed in the UK [26/2].
- Correspondence: National flu immunisation programme plan 2026 to 2027 [26/2].
- News: Millions eligible for free shingles vaccine urged to come forward [26/2].
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
- Press release: Brensocatib licensed as the first medicine specifically designed to treat non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis in patients 12 years and older [23/2].
- Guidance: Apply for a licence to market a medicine in the UK [24/2].
- News: Fake Mounjaro (tirzepatide) KwikPen 15mg pre-filled pens [24/2].
- Press release: MHRA disrupts second manufacturing facility suspected to be involved in the manufacture of illegal weight loss medicines in latest blow to criminal network [25/2].
- Guidance: Strengthening supply chain cyber security at the MHRA [26/2].
Policy, think tanks, charities, and representative bodies
The Health Foundation
- GP contract: not transformative, but signs of incremental change [27/2].
- The 2026/27 GP contract offers only modest, incremental changes rather than the major transformation previously promised, with a small real‑terms funding rise that leaves practices struggling against rising costs and unable to lead a shift from hospital‑based to preventive, community care. New same‑day urgent care requirements and the absorption of advice‑and‑guidance funding risk creating unrealistic workload pressures, while a repurposed GP recruitment scheme may deliver only short‑term gains due to funding uncertainty and existing regional inequalities. Although the contract includes welcome prevention incentives and small steps toward improving access and continuity of care, it lacks clarity on the future neighbourhood provider contracts and does not address the scale of change and investment needed, leaving practices uncertain and potentially at risk of further closures and GP attrition.
Ipsos
- Half of the public avoided seeking help from their GP about a health concern in the last year [25/2].
- The Health Foundation and Ipsos continue a programme of public polling research, providing insights into public perceptions of health and social care.
- The latest survey, conducted in December 2025, shows:
- People are avoiding or delaying contacting their GP;
- Improving access to appointments at GP practices and to A&E are the public’s top priorities;
- Public is open to different ways of accessing general practice;
- Views of NHS performance remain negative.
Nuffield Trust
- Will specialist advice and guidance reduce the waiting list for planned care as the government hopes? [27/2].
- This article explains that while advice and guidance (A&G) between specialists and GPs have grown steadily, the government’s push to massively scale it up to reduce NHS waiting lists is unlikely to meet targets or deliver the hoped‑for impact. Despite financial incentives introduced in 2025, A&G activity is falling far short of the goal of 4 million requests and 2 million diverted referrals by March 2026, with diverted cases increasing more slowly than total requests and referrals continuing to rise due to growing underlying demand. The scheme appears to be reaching its natural limits: most growth is occurring in specialties where A&G was already established (like dermatology and neurology), while areas with long waits and high demand (such as trauma and orthopaedics or ENT) show little uptake because A&G is less clinically suitable. Although A&G can support quicker decisions for some patients, it is not proving to be the “silver bullet” for reducing waiting lists, and its true impact remains unclear without systematic evaluation.
London Trusts
Barts Health NHS Trust
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust