Data

Data analysis of structural inequalities in primary care.

Different populations have different needs for primary care. The NHS measures healthcare need by accounting for the populations’ demographic characteristics and overall health status to produce a ‘weighted’ population count (1).

This chart demonstrates that the ICBs with the greatest healthcare need relative to population size are North East and North Cumbria, Lincolnshire, and Cheshire and Merseyside.

This pattern reflects a combination of demographics, such as the number of older people, socio-economic disadvantage, such as the level of poverty, and the health of the population.

The NHS has developed an approach – Core20PLUS5 – to target the most socio-economically disadvantaged 20% of the national population, as identified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Levels of deprivation vary between ICBs; to understand the distribution of GP surgeries across the socio-economic gradient we have divided practices into quintiles from most to least deprived, based on the IMD of the populations served.

This chart illustrates that over 60% over practices in Birmingham & Solihull and the Black Country serve populations that are predominantly in the most deprived quintile of the national population. Whereas there are no practices in the Surrey Heartlands or Somerset which are in the lowest deprivation quintile based on an average of the population they serve.

This does not mean that there are not pockets of poverty and disadvantage in Surrey Heartlands or Somerset, rather when all the patients in each practice are combined the average is not in the lowest quintile.

In order to ensure equitable primary care, practices serving populations with higher healthcare need should receive commensurately higher funding. Here we plot how funding has changed over time by socio-economic group across England.

Practices serving the most deprived 20% of the population received £14 less in NHS payments per weighted patient in 2022 than their counterparts serving patients in the top quintile; in 2015, the difference was £16.

Practices receive income based on their population (capitation payment) and for providing additional services or meeting quality standards. The largest proportion, the Global Sum, is allocated based on the number of patients and their estimated health need.

Even though Global Sum payments are supposed to account for healthcare need, the practices serving the most deprived quintile (Q5) still receive fewer payments from the NHS than practices serving the least deprived quintile (Q1). Therefore, Q1 must be receiving relatively more payments in the other categories.

Here we divide payments in each quintile into several different categories (2) and determine the proportion of total payments of each category in each quintile in 2022.

In relative terms, prescribing payments constitute 13% of Q1’s payments, versus only 2% of payments to Q5. As such, the socio-economic gradient in payments is largely driven by differences in prescribing payments.

The number of staff that each practice employs is important because it impacts on the number of appointments they can offer. Funding, workforce availability, practice culture and neighbourhood factors all contribute to staffing levels within a practice. Here we have mapped the socio-economic gradient of GPs, nurses and Direct Patient Care staff (DPC, staff who treat patients but are not GPs or nurses) in each ICB.

In 2022, practices serving the most deprived 20% of the national population had 4.2 more DPC staff per 100,000 population than the practices serving the top quintile.

There is a mismatch in supply (funding and workforce) and demand/need (weighted population and deprivation) patterned across the socio-economic gradient. This mismatch leads to inequalities in patient experience of general practices, as measured by the GP Patient Survey.

This chart shows how patient satisfaction with GP practices has changed over time by socio-economic group across England. We see that in 2015, 89% of patients who visited practices serving the least deprived quintile described their overall experience as ‘Good’, versus 81% of patients visiting practices serving the most deprived 20%. This disparity increased following a decline in patient satisfaction across the board in 2022, from 8% to 10%.

Here we explore structural determinants of inequalities at the ICB level, focussing on the East of England.