Responsive primary care was the foundation of Better Health for London. It is also the most equipment-dependent setting in the system: what a surgery can do for a patient is bounded by the kit in its consulting rooms and the diagnostics it can run on the day.
A modern London surgery is, in practice, a diagnostic front door. The shift toward care closer to home only works if that front door can see, test and decide — which means examination equipment that supports a full assessment, point-of-care diagnostics that return a result within the appointment, and a cold chain that keeps a borough’s vaccination programme viable.