Editing General practice (section)

===Premises===
{{Update section|date=July 2023}}
Practices were generally small, often single handed, operating from the doctor's home and often with the doctor's wife acting as a receptionist.<ref>{{cite news|title=The evolving role and nature of general practice in England|url=https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_related_document/gp-inquiry-report-evolving-role-nature-2mar11.pdf|access-date=6 July 2017|publisher=Kings Fund|date=2 March 2011}}</ref>  When the NHS was established in 1948 there were plans for the building of [[health centre]]s, but few were built. The [[British Medical Association]] in 2019 conducted a survey for GP premises. About half of the 1,011 respondents thought their surgeries were not suitable for present needs, and 78% said they would not be able to handle expected future demands.<ref>{{cite news |title=Half of all GP surgery buildings 'unfit' for purpose |url=https://www.buildingbetterhealthcare.co.uk/news/article_page/Half_of_all_GP_surgery_buildings_unfit_for_purpose/152184/cn164706 |access-date=12 April 2019 |publisher=Building Better Healthcare |date=27 February 2019 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412140438/https://www.buildingbetterhealthcare.co.uk/news/article_page/Half_of_all_GP_surgery_buildings_unfit_for_purpose/152184/cn164706 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==== Number and size of practices ====
599 GP practices closed between 2010–11 and 2014–15, while 91 opened and average practice list size increased from 6,610 to 7,171.<ref>{{cite news|title=Nearly 600 GP practices closed since 2010|url=http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/primary-care/nearly-600-gp-practices-closed-since-2010/5087888.article#.VgMdkejkJv4|access-date=23 September 2015|publisher=Health Service Journal|date=14 July 2015}}</ref> In 2016 there were 7,613 practices in England, 958 in Scotland, 454 in Wales and 349 in Northern Ireland.<ref>{{cite news|title=General practice in the UK|url=https://www.bma.org.uk/-/media/files/pdfs/.../general-practice.pdf?la=en|access-date=6 July 2017|publisher=British Medical Association|date=April 2017}}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> There were 7435 practices in England and the average practice list size in June 2017 was 7,860. There were 1.35 million patients over 85.<ref>{{cite news|title=Number of GP practices drops by more than 650 in four years|url=http://www.gponline.com/number-gp-practices-drops-650-four-years/article/1436925|access-date=16 July 2017|publisher=GP Online|date=20 June 2017}}</ref> There has been a great deal of consolidation into larger practices, especially in England. [[Lakeside Healthcare]] was the largest practice in England in 2014, with 62 partners and more than 100,000 patients. Maintaining general practices in isolated communities has become very challenging, and calls on very different skills and behaviour from that required in large practices where there is increasing specialisation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Embracing island life as a GP in Shetland|url=http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/working-life/embracing-island-life-as-a-gp-in-shetland/20032034.article|access-date=6 July 2017|publisher=Pulse|date=27 June 2016}}</ref>  By 1 October 2018, 47 GP practices in England had a list size of 30,000 or more and the average list size had reached 8,420.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sharp rise in GP practices with more than 30,000 patients |url=https://www.gponline.com/sharp-rise-gp-practices-30000-patients/article/1496281 |access-date=18 October 2018 |publisher=GP Online |date=16 October 2018}}</ref>  In 2019 the average number of registered patients per GP in England has risen since 2018 by 56 to 2,087.<ref>{{cite news |title=Number of registered patients per GP rises to almost 2,100 |url=http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/all-news/number-of-registered-patients-per-gp-rises-to-almost-2100/20039037.article |access-date=25 August 2019 |publisher=Pulse |date=11 July 2019}}</ref>