Primary care includes general practice, community pharmacy, dental and optometry (eye health) services. Primary care services provide the first point of contact to the healthcare system - acting as the ‘front door’ of the NHS - and are fundamental to people’s experiences of health and care.
Our primary care priority
The focus of our primary care priority is to challenge the inequity of access which people tell us exists. We do this by seeking to understand the needs of our population and by providing information and advice accordingly. Alongside this we challenge and influence the healthcare system via our seats on a number of local boards and committees. Ultimately, we work to ensure that the population of Surrey know how and when to access primary care services and that services work better together to meet the needs of their local populations. This year we are particularly interested in the shift from analogue to digital within primary care settings, and the impact this might have on those who prefer or need non-digital options.
Recent work under this priority
Our recent work under this priority has included:
- In the new year we spoke to people about the support available to help them manage their weight. We met with residents from Surrey Downs, Surrey Heath and North West Surrey and also ran a Surrey wide survey open to anyone over the age of 18. Our report, What we're hearing about Weight Management support, highlights our key findings and recommendations around easier access to information and support.
- Last summer we spoke to people across Surrey about the increasing move to online channels to access GP services, as well as the use of new technologies such as AI within GP practice. Our report - The digital divide - summarises our findings on their views and concerns and has been shared with our primary care colleagues. We recently repeated our research in light of the new requirement for GP practices to provide online access to appointments throughout core practice hours. We spoke to people at face to face events across Surrey. Our report, Bridging the Digital Divide, was published in June 2026 and includes a spotlight on the homeless population.
- We are currently working with our Giving Carers’ a Voice colleagues to hear about carers’ experiences of accessing primary care for the people they care for. We’re out and about in the community talking to people face to face and also have a survey running till the end of September - Carers' experiences of GP practices.
- We continue to work with our colleagues in primary care to support the gathering of patient insight, and have also been supporting the roll out of the neighbourhood health implementation programme, most recently inputting into the design and the facilitation of a Community Voice workshop to enable residents to have their say about their health and social care needs and how they wish to be heard in the future.
Reports and bulletins relating to this priority can be found under the Access to primary care category of our reports section on our website.
You can find out more about how primary care fits within the wider healthcare system on our Understanding Healthcare page.