UK's global leadership in primary care research at risk as government commits £29bn to community healthcare transformation.
A coalition of the UK's leading primary care academics has outlined urgent actions needed to protect the country's world-leading position in general practice research, following concerns raised by the Medical Research Council report about the collapsing clinical academic workforce.
The recommendations, published today in the British Journal of General Practice, come as the government commits £29 billion to transform NHS care "from hospital to community" - a shift the authors warn cannot succeed without the research workforce to guide it.
The paper, co-authored by academics from the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford reveals that academic GPs, who provide the evidence base for effective community healthcare, now represent just 0.05% of the GP workforce, compared to 3% of hospital doctors in academic roles.
The paper proposes five key recommendations to address the crisis:
Academic GPs are uniquely positioned to ask the right questions, collect real-world evidence, and translate these findings into clinical practice. However, without investment in people, infrastructure and culture to build a strong academic GP workforce for the future, we risk undermining the very foundation of evidence-based primary care.
Professor Clare Taylor MBE, Professor of General Practice at the University of Birmingham, and lead author of the study commented:
“We need to make academic general practice a visible and valued career path for the next generation of GPs, to combat this clear decline within the current workforce. Funders and academic institutions need to work together to provide stable routes for career progression, without the threat of gaps in funding, to recruit and retain talent.
“Academic GPs are uniquely positioned to ask the right questions, collect real-world evidence, and translate these findings into clinical practice. However, without investment in people, infrastructure and culture to build a strong academic GP workforce for the future, we risk undermining the very foundation of evidence-based primary care.”
The UK has historically led the world in academic general practice, with research from UK GPs developing internationally renowned and widely used tools like QRISK, establishing new standards for blood pressure monitoring as well as rapidly identifying effective COVID-19 treatments during the pandemic. However, this leadership is now under threat.
Professor Michael Kidd, Professor of Global Primary Care at the University of Oxford and Chief Medical Officer of Australia added:
"Having worked in primary care systems across the world, I've seen firsthand how UK research has shaped global healthcare. From Australia to Canada, we've relied on evidence generated by British academic GPs to transform our health systems.
"It's deeply ironic that as other nations invest heavily to build their academic primary care capacity – often by recruiting UK talent – Britain is allowing this world-leading resource to wither. The brain drain is real, and it's accelerating."
The timing is particularly critical given the government's Spending Review commitments to "bring back the family doctor" by training thousands more GPs and delivering millions more appointments. Lord Darzi's review, which informed this strategy, identified the shift from hospital to community care as essential for creating "an NHS fit for the future."
Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh, Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford and a co-author of the paper said:
"The government has committed significant funding to move care into the community and train thousands more GPs, which is very welcome. But without academic GPs to research what works, test new models of care, and train the next generation, we're essentially flying blind. You cannot transform healthcare without evidence, and the workforce that provides it is in crisis."
The research crisis comes as demand for community-based evidence has never been higher. With over a million GP consultations occurring each working day, the need for evidence-based community care is urgent. Yet without this research, patients may receive treatments that work in hospitals but haven't been tested in community settings.
Co-author Professor Richard Hobbs, Mercian Professor of Primary Care at the University of Oxford added:
"The Spending Review demonstrates the government's commitment to community-based care, but money alone won't deliver transformation and some elements of the strategy not specified, such as the right numbers of generalist medical practitioners, especially GPs, practice nurses and pharmacists, to meet the needs of the population.
"This workforce also needs reliable evidence base and for decades, UK GP research has shown the world how to deliver effective primary care. Without urgent action to rebuild our academic GP workforce, we risk squandering the world-class academic legacy we have built and the billions being invested in more community care."
For media enquiries please contact Holly Young, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)7815 607 157.
Notes to editor:
About the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:
NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.
The NIHR is the research partner of the NHS, public health and social care.
Professor of General Practice
Staff profile for Professor Clare Taylor, Professor of General Practice, Department of Applied Health Sciences, University of Birmingham.
