Closed petition: Require Government to co-design better NHS care pathways and to employ more GPs
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We call on the Government to work with patients and GPs to co-design care pathways so that they provide clearer information and allow patients to track referrals. Government must also plan to train, hire and retain enough GPs for timely care.
Patients and GPs have told us the NHS feels like a maze: hard to access, confusing to navigate, and full of delays, lost referrals and unclear next steps. We believe GPs spend too much time on bureaucracy, while workforce shortages limit timely access and continuity of care. We need clear, consistent information across the NHS, more GPs, joined-up systems across primary, community and secondary care, referral tracking, and services co-designed with patients and GPs so the health system works better for everyone.
10,761 signatures
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Government responded to this petition
The Government is committed to putting patients first. Our reforms are making care pathways more efficient, timely and responsive to patients, and we now have the highest number of GPs since 2015.
Read the response in full
The Government is committed to putting patients first, improving access and continuity of care, and ensuring that care is more joined-up across primary, community and secondary services. Our 10 Year Health Plan set out reforms to modernise care and make pathways more efficient, timely and responsive to patients’ needs so that patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Neighbourhood health will bring services together around people, not organisations, so patients can get joined-up support closer to home. The Plan was co-developed with the public, health and care staff and partner organisations, drawing on more than a quarter of a million contributions through Change NHS.
From October 2026, secondary care providers are expected to ensure that all appropriate referrals and requests for specialist advice, excluding urgent suspected cancer referrals, flow through a Single Point of Access model. This single front door will support clinical triage to the most appropriate service or outcome, enabling faster specialist assessment and clearer next steps for patients. Clear two-way communication between primary and secondary care is a key expectation, so that GPs receive timely responses from named specialists. Where a referral is accepted, the patient will be managed within the relevant elective pathway and added to the appropriate waiting list.
The NHS App is becoming the digital front door to the NHS, giving patients greater control over their care. The NHS App uses co-production by involving patients, carers, and people with lived experience in the design, development, testing and improvement of services to enhance accessibility and inclusion. As services expand, patients will increasingly be able to access advice, manage medicines, book, cancel or amend GP and hospital appointments, and view their health information, referrals and waiting times in one place. From September 2026, patients using the NHS App have been able to receive notifications when a referral has been received and accepted.
Our Elective Reform Plan also aims to make the NHS App and Manage Your Referral website the default route for patients to choose their provider, supported by better information on waiting times so that they can make an informed choice. Non-digital routes will remain available for people who cannot or prefer not to use the App.
We are looking more broadly at improving the interface between primary, community and secondary care services. This will help free up GPs’ time to spend on caring for patients. The Government and NHS England’s ‘Red Tape Challenge’ engaged professionals across primary and secondary care to identify what works and what needs to change.
Increasing GP numbers is a priority for this Government. We have the highest number of fully qualified GPs since 2015, and steps are being taken to grow the GP workforce further. As of August 2026, there are 30,369 full-time equivalent GPs – over 2,600 more GPs than in July 2024.
The Practice-Level GP Reimbursement Scheme introduced in the 2026/27 GP contract provides ring-fenced funding for practices to recruit GPs or increase sessions from existing GPs. From 1 October 2026, we are providing greater flexibility in the GP reimbursement scheme by allowing practices to claim reimbursement for locum GPs and enabling them to pool funding across practices.
NHS England continues to expand the number of places for GP Specialty Training. An additional 250 places are available from September 2026, bringing the total number of training places to 4,500, with plans to expand further each year and reach 5,000 places by 2028.
We are also reforming general practice so that urgent needs are dealt with on the same day, patients receive a clear next step rather than being asked to call back another day, and people who would benefit most receive better continuity of care.
We are committed to restoring continuity of care for patients who need it most. We will bring back the family doctor for patients who would benefit from seeing the same clinician regularly, recognising the vital role that continuity can play in identifying and managing health conditions.
Department of Health and Social Care
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Petition closed
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Government will respond to this petition
This petition got more than 10,000 signatures meaning that government will respond to it.
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Petition published
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If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.
If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.
This petition will stay open until 14 October 2026.