May has launched community-based rapid response teams and dedicated support for care home residents to improve primary care and increase the ability to treat people in their communities, rather than requiring them to go to acute hospitals.
The new plans come with a package of investment worth £3.5bn per year in real terms by 2023/4.
However, Richard Coe, project director at Kajima Partnerships, said that some of this money needs to be directed towards the primary care estate, so that treatments can be provided in appropriate buildings.
“In order to achieve a seamless, effective and efficient care pathway from hospital back into the community, the government must urgently invest in independent living, managed accommodation and primary & community centres,” he said.
“These facilities could offer integrated, multi-disciplinary services, enabling patients to move with confidence and efficiency though the system, ensuring a continuing level of appropriate care whilst reducing the hospital bed blocking that is currently strangling the NHS.”
New NHS funding ‘needs to consider estate’
Prime Minister Theresa May has announced a new strategy to enhance primary care, but industry experts have urged for funding to be spent on buildings
