GP leaders expressed disappointment today as a “recovery plan” for general practice focused on patient access, proposing to divert thousands of appointments to pharmacies.

Pharmacists will be able to issue antibiotic and antiviral treatments for a range of common conditions, including earache and UTIs together with oral contraception, it was announced.

The plan was officially launched by NHS England today – but pre-empted yesterday by announcements led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It sets out details of proposals to upgrade practice phone systems and to train receptionist staff – to ensure patients can get guidance or appointments if they call at 8am. £240 million has been allocated for modernising phone systems this year. Receptionists meanwhile will be retrained as “care navigators”.

There was also a promise of a review by the Academy of the Medical Royal Colleges into how hospital clinicians and GPs work together to achieve “joined up” care. There will also be more self-referral for patients to services such as physiotherapy, audiology and podiatry.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said today: “By upgrading to digital telephone systems and the latest online tools, by transferring some treatment services to our incredibly capable community pharmacies and by cutting unnecessary paperwork we can free up GPs time and let them focus on delivering the care patients need. Together with further support to increase the workforce, this plan will provide faster and more convenient care.”

Royal College of GPs chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: “Whilst all these initiatives are positive steps, none are the silver bullet that we desperately need to address the intense workload and workforce pressures GPs and their teams are working under – we need thousands more GPs to be able to use these measures effectively to provide the services patients need. The public need to be aware of what’s achievable – change is not going to happen overnight. Politicians think that promising faster access will improve services and win votes, but many practices are already struggling for lack of GPs and other clinical staff, particularly in communities with large numbers of patients with complex needs and disproportionate health inequalities.

“The only true solution is to increase numbers of fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs, both in the short and long terms by training and retaining them – and we look to the long-awaited NHS workforce plan with anticipation, to see how this will be achieved.”

Ruth Rankine, director of primary care at the NHS Confederation, said: “Primary care will only be able to fully recover and manage the increasing demand if there is sufficient investment and commitment from the government to increase the actual numbers of GPs, nurses and other vital posts in the NHS at a time when there over 130,000 vacancies in England alongside record demand for healthcare. If the government truly wants to ‘end the 8am scramble’ rather than pay lip service to the public, its ambition will need to go further to retain the workforce we already have; otherwise, we risk further frustrating patients by not having enough staff to deliver care.”

Thorrun Govind, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, said: “The plans announced today are a real game-changer for patients as they will provide better access to healthcare, helping to reduce the strain on other parts of the NHS and provide patients with the care they need, when they need it. They provide further endorsement of the crucial role that pharmacies play in helping the public at the heart of primary care.”