The physical spaces in which primary healthcare is delivered matter and have the potential to profoundly affect both patients and staff. This potential is illustrated by academics, who describe the connection between the spaces in which care is delivered and how cared for, and well, patients feel.1,2,3 Considering healthcare space as a ‘passive background’1 underestimates its impact.1 Instead, conceptualising space as ‘active’ better describes its role as ‘participative in the very making of care and health’.1 While many existing studies focus on hospital settings, there is evidence to suggest that the same is true for primary care.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were dramatic changes to general practice spaces, and the negotiation of such spaces, in the UK. These changes (including locked doors, spatial protocols for queueing or sitting, and remote consulting), which continued to evolve as the pandemic did, had a variety of consequences for patients and staff. Many patients felt shut out of their surgeries, but patients from diverse backgrounds and those with long-term or complex health needs were disproportionately exposed to the negative effects of such changes.4 At the same time, NHS England and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) recognised that there is a shortage of space to deliver a needed increase in capacity to meet rising patient demand, house additional staff, and support teaching and training opportunities.5,6 Ensuring suitable spaces exist for collaborative care delivery is a necessity for meeting various national policy goals as well as ‘opening the door’ for improved connections between patients and their GP surgeries. This article considers the ways in which focusing on primary care spaces could lead to improved outcomes from the perspectives of both patients and staff.

GP surgeries have evolved over time, each from …