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.
Recent work under this priority
Our recent work under this priority has included;
- Following the publication of our report examining whether general practice is meeting the needs of people who are experiencing domestic abuse within Surrey, and what improvements could be made to better meet these needs (In safe hands- Domestic abuse survivors experiences of general practice - July 2025) we have been working with our partners across Surrey to make some of the recommendations within the report a reality. Discussions are taking place around education and training for front line general practice staff, the development of a checklist of 10 signs to look out for in patients who may be experiencing domestic abuse and the establishment criteria for GP practices to fulfil in order to achieve accreditation, amongst many others.
- Earlier in the year we asked parents of school age children whether their children had sight (eye) tests and if there were any barriers to having these tests. Our report - Out of sight, out of mind: parents and carers understanding of sight tests for school aged children - July 2025 – highlighted the issues which the parents of neurodivergent children in particular face. In response to this we developed an information resource to answer some of the questions these parents have. The resource is supporting various system partners and is now available on our website - Sight (eye) tests for children and young people.
- Since April 2025 our Helpdesk has received 40 enquiries relating to the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) and reasonable adjustments for patients accessing general practice. Our initial findings are in an upcoming report, but we wanted to strengthen our understanding of this important issue further. We’re therefore now talking to residents whilst out and about on engagement in the community and are supporting this engagement with an online survey: Experience of adjustments at your GP practice
- In partnership with the Surrey Local Optical Committee (LOC), Sight for Surrey, the Specialist Diabetic Screening Service, High Street Opticians and Surrey Heartlands ICB we have commenced the research phase of a project looking to understand the barriers to having sight tests and what might encourage those from for black and Asian minoritised communities attend. This project is also supported with an online survey: Experiences and barriers to accessing sight (eye) tests for Black and Asian minoritised communities.
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.