Primary Care Collaborative North Cumbria launched a new awareness campaign at the end of June 2026 designed to highlight the realities of modern general practice and provide greater context around some of the most common perceptions surrounding access to healthcare.
The campaign, titled Beyond the Headlines, uses local data and real-world examples to help tell the story behind the statistics and showcase the work taking place every day across GP practices in North Cumbria.
General practice is often at the centre of public discussion, particularly when it comes to accessing appointments. While frustrations are understandable, Primary Care Collaborative North Cumbria believes it is important that conversations about healthcare are informed by facts and an understanding of the increasing pressures facing services.
As part of the campaign, data from 21 of the 33 GP practices across the NHS area of North Cumbria has been brought together to provide a snapshot of activity within general practice.
The figures show that more than 61,000 face-to-face appointments were delivered during January 2026 alone, demonstrating that face-to-face care continues to play a significant role in how practices support patients.
The data also highlights the impact of missed appointments. During the same period, 2,162 appointments were not attended and were not cancelled in advance. These appointments represented valuable clinical time that could otherwise have been offered to patients waiting for care.
The campaign also highlights the wider role of general practice within the NHS. Nationally, general practice receives around 6% of NHS funding while delivering around 90% of NHS patient contacts, underlining the scale of activity taking place within local communities every day.
Behind these figures are multidisciplinary teams of GPs, nurses, pharmacists, care navigators, reception staff, healthcare assistants and many other professionals working together to support patients. As demand for healthcare continues to grow, practice teams are helping increasing numbers of people who are living longer and often managing more complex health conditions.
A spokesperson for Primary Care Collaborative North Cumbria said:
“General practice is often discussed through headlines, social media comments and individual experiences. While those experiences are important, they do not always tell the whole story.
Through the Beyond the Headlines campaign, we wanted to share some of the facts behind the conversations and provide a clearer picture of the work taking place across our practices every day.
This is not about dismissing people’s frustrations. We understand that accessing healthcare can sometimes be challenging. Instead, it is about raising awareness of the scale of activity taking place across general practice and recognising the dedication of the teams working hard to care for their communities.”
The Beyond the Headlines campaign will be shared across social media and digital channels throughout the coming weeks, focusing on appointment activity, missed appointments and the wider contribution general practice makes to the NHS and local communities.
