Primary Care Weekly Update – Week Commencing 3rd November 2025

This primary care update reviews the key developments affecting general practice this week as surgeries continue to manage rising winter demand, digital record access work, workforce changes, and vaccination delivery. Practices are working hard to maintain access, continuity and patient safety while managing higher administrative and clinical workloads. The themes below reflect conditions seen across many regions.

Seasonal Demand and Access Pressures

This week has seen another rise in patient contact linked to respiratory infections and winter-related illnesses. Same day appointment availability has become tighter, particularly during morning peak hours, where large volumes of calls and online requests are received. Practices are continuing to refine care navigation processes to ensure that patients are directed to the most appropriate route of care. This includes pharmacy, community pathways, urgent treatment centres or scheduled clinical review where needed.

Maintaining continuity for patients with long-term or complex conditions remains important. However, this is increasingly balanced against high demand for urgent same day contact. Many practices are updating duty doctor workflows and internal triage processes to support safe decision-making and reduce pressure on clinicians at peak times.

Primary Care Telephony and Online Consultation Workflows

Telephony teams remain under significant strain, with many reporting sustained call queues each morning. This primary care update highlights the value of well-trained care navigators who can manage calls efficiently and communicate clearly with patients. Where surgeries have invested in call-back systems or queue visibility messaging, call handling has seen improvement.

Online consultation requests have also continued to rise. Practices have been reviewing how these are allocated and triaged. Some have introduced clear cut-off times or triage sessions to ensure appropriate response times and avoid excess spill-over into urgent clinical capacity. Clear patient communication remains essential to managing expectations.

Winter Vaccination Programme Progress

The seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme continues to progress across general practice and Primary Care Networks. Uptake remains strongest among older adults and those with underlying health conditions. However, younger eligible groups continue to show varied engagement.

Some regions have experienced adjustments to vaccine delivery schedules. Practices have responded by reorganising clinics, reissuing invitations, and reallocating staff. This primary care update acknowledges the considerable administrative work involved in recalling and rescheduling large patient groups, particularly when timeframes change at short notice.

Clinical teams have continued to demonstrate flexibility, delivering vaccinations during routine appointments, care home visits, and targeted recall clinics. Stock management and accurate recording continue to be important, especially as reimbursement and year-end reporting considerations draw nearer.

Online Access to Prospective Medical Records

Work to provide patients with online access to prospective medical records remains ongoing. Practices are continuing to review consultation entries to ensure that sensitive or third-party information is appropriately protected. This is a detailed and time-intensive task.

Many practices have now developed internal workflows for reviewing records in structured batches. Some have assigned trained administrative staff to screen for formatting, while clinicians focus on clinical content concerns. The aim is to achieve compliance while maintaining operational stability. This primary care update notes that the workload impact remains significant, particularly in practices already facing staffing pressures.

Workforce Planning and ARRS Role Deployment

Primary Care Networks have started planning workforce arrangements for the next financial year under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. PCNs are reviewing the distribution of clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, mental health practitioners, paramedics, care coordinators, and other funded roles.

Successful integration of these roles depends on clear induction processes, ongoing supervision, and defined responsibilities. Practices continue to highlight the importance of ensuring new staff are embedded into clinical systems rather than working in isolation. This primary care update emphasises that strong role clarity is essential to avoid duplication or inefficiency.

Recruitment and retention pressures remain particularly noticeable within reception and administrative teams. Rising patient contact volumes and public-facing responsibilities make these roles demanding. Some practices are now exploring remote administrative support or outsourced workflow capacity to stabilise internal operations.

Prescription Safety and MHRA Guidance

Recent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency updates have required practices to review prescribing pathways for a number of medications. Practices are ensuring monitoring checks are up to date and that any necessary patient recalls are in place. Electronic workflow systems, including EMIS and Docman, continue to support safe alert management. This primary care update reinforces the importance of proactive recall and documentation when clinical teams are working at capacity.

Extended Access and PCN Service Delivery

PCNs continue to deliver evening and weekend appointments as required under extended access contracts. Some regions are piloting multidisciplinary extended access hubs where pharmacists, first-contact physiotherapists, mental health practitioners and GPs work within the same clinic session. This approach seeks to reduce fragmentation and improve continuity.

However, successful models rely on effective scheduling, strong coordination and shared communication channels. Practices are working to refine these systems to ensure that extended access capacity meets genuine patient demand rather than simply adding additional sessions that may not be used.

Patient Communication and Staff Wellbeing

Clear communication remains essential in sustaining patient understanding and trust. Many practices are updating their websites, phone messages and waiting room information to explain appointment processes, care navigation, and expected response times. This primary care update also acknowledges the emotional impact that rising demand and occasional patient frustration can have on staff. Practices are placing renewed emphasis on staff wellbeing measures, including supportive team meetings and access to de-escalation training where appropriate.

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