Primary care in Hampshire

Primary care in Hampshire serves one of the largest county populations in England.

The 2025 ONS mid-year estimate puts Hampshire's population at 1,451,703, excluding Portsmouth and Southampton.

The county is geographically large, demographically varied and ageing.

Hampshire includes dense urban areas, commuter towns, coastal settlements and extensive rural communities. Affluent districts and neighbourhoods experiencing deprivation sit within the same county, making the pattern of primary-care demand highly local.

That makes Hampshire a very different primary-care market from a compact city such as Portsmouth or Southampton.

Access, workforce and demand vary significantly by place.

The NHS structure also changed in April 2026.

The current NHS structure lists 19 PCNs in the wider Hampshire area plus four in North East Hampshire, giving 23 across the Hampshire County Council geography following the April 2026 alignment described here.

That gives 23 Primary Care Networks across the Hampshire County Council geography.

At the same time, Hampshire is moving rapidly toward neighbourhood health.

During 2026, NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight proposed 24 neighbourhood health areas across Hampshire County Council's geography, designed around local population characteristics, long-term conditions and existing community connections.

The pharmacy market is equally important.

Hampshire's final Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025–28 concluded that the number, distribution and choice of pharmaceutical services meets current and future need.

The evidence used in the 2025 Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment included 210 community pharmacies, seven distance-selling pharmacies and 26 dispensing GP practice locations. Despite the geographical variation, the assessment did not identify a general current or future shortage of necessary pharmaceutical services.

The PNA found no current or future gap in necessary pharmaceutical services during its lifetime.

For prospective healthcare providers, this means Hampshire has substantial health demand but also extensive existing infrastructure.

The strongest opportunities are likely to be pathway specific rather than based on a general assumption that the county needs another clinic or pharmacy.

Hampshire primary care at a glance

These figures come from different datasets and reference periods. They describe the infrastructure and direction of the market rather than a single live operational snapshot.

1,451,703

Residents in the 2025 ONS mid-year estimate

6.6%

Forecast population growth, 2024 to 2031

23

Primary Care Networks across the Hampshire County Council geography

1 April 2026

North East Hampshire joined NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight

24

Proposed neighbourhood health areas across Hampshire during 2026

210

Community pharmacies in the main evidence base for the 2025–28 PNA

7

Distance-selling pharmacies

26

Dispensing GP practice locations

23

Pharmacies operating under 100-hour contractual arrangements in the PNA evidence

187

Pharmacies operating under 40-hour contracts

182

Pharmacies open for at least part of Saturday

40

Pharmacies open for at least part of Sunday

98%

Of residents within a five-mile drive of a pharmacy located within Hampshire

None

Current or future general gap in necessary pharmaceutical services in the 2025 to 2028 assessment

179

Pharmacies providing hypertension case-finding in the April 2024 evidence

103,000+

Flu vaccinations delivered through Hampshire pharmacies in the 2023/24 season

Hampshire's population is large and growing

Hampshire is home to more than 1.45 million residents.

Current county forecasting shows substantial growth through the early 2030s.

The 2026 JSNA estimates a 6.6% increase between 2024 and 2031.

6.6%

Forecast growth

and

94,300

Additional residents

That is around 94,300 additional residents.

A larger population may increase GP registrations, repeat prescriptions, vaccinations, screening, diagnostics, long-term-condition monitoring and urgent same-day appointments. These changes will not occur evenly; areas with substantial housing growth may experience more immediate pressure than established communities.

Winchester is growing faster than some other districts

Hampshire forecasts especially strong population growth in Winchester.

Other districts have slower growth.

Primary-care demand responds to the geography of housing development, migration, age and deprivation. A county-wide growth estimate can therefore conceal a much faster increase in need around particular developments or practice catchments.

A county-wide growth figure can therefore conceal much stronger pressure in specific practices and PCNs.

The population is ageing

Hampshire has a larger share of older residents than England overall.

People aged 70 and over make up 16.9% of the population.

The fastest projected increases are among people aged 80 and over.

This has major implications for primary care.

With increasing age comes a higher likelihood of combinations of hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular or respiratory illness, arthritis, frailty, dementia and complex prescribing. Clinical services will need to manage multiple interacting conditions, not merely a greater number of individual appointments.

Primary-care demand therefore becomes more complex as well as larger.

Some districts face particularly rapid 80-plus growth

Basingstoke and Deane, Rushmoor and Test Valley are among the areas where the 80-plus population is projected to grow especially quickly through 2031.

Faster growth among the oldest residents can increase need for frailty management, home visits, medication reviews, community diagnostics, falls prevention and coordinated care. A service aimed at older people should examine the district and PCN population rather than rely on Hampshire's overall average.

A provider targeting older adults should therefore assess district-level ageing rather than the county average.

Hampshire is now under one main ICB structure

The NHS organisational picture changed on 1 April 2026.

North East Hampshire moved from the former Frimley ICB footprint into NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight.

That means older documents can be structurally out of date.

The earlier Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment correctly described the county as divided between NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight and NHS Frimley when drafted. Market analysis for October 2026 should reflect the subsequent alignment of North East Hampshire described in current NHS arrangements, rather than repeat the older commissioning boundary.

Current market analysis should use the post-April-2026 structure.

Hampshire has 23 PCNs across the county geography

The current NHS listing identifies North East Hampshire separately from the wider Hampshire grouping, with four PCNs in the former and 19 in the latter.

1. Wider Hampshire

   19

2. North East Hampshire

   4

The four North East Hampshire networks are Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet and Yateley. Each serves a particular set of practices and patients, not a county-wide market.

1. Aldershot
2. Farnborough
3. Fleet
4. Yateley

The other 19 networks cover areas including Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville, New Forest, Romsey, Basingstoke, Totton, Waterside, Winchester and rural communities in north and east Hampshire. For many proposed services, the relevant market will be a single network or neighbourhood.

For a provider, the relevant market is often the PCN or neighbourhood rather than the entire county.

PCN size and structure vary substantially

Some Hampshire PCNs are built around one large practice.

Others bring together several smaller practices.

That affects how a new service might engage.

A prospective partner may need to engage a large practice partnership, several separate surgeries, a federation, a neighbourhood team or NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight. The correct route depends on who commissions the intended clinical activity and which organisations provide it.

The route depends on the service.

General practice is increasingly multidisciplinary

Primary care now includes GPs and nurses working alongside pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics, mental-health practitioners, social prescribers and care coordinators. Capacity shortages may therefore be addressed through multidisciplinary pathways rather than the creation of another traditional GP clinic.

This is important for market analysis.

Pressure on GP appointments does not automatically mean another GP-led clinic is the best solution.

A provider should identify which professional pathway is actually constrained.

Primary-care activity continues to rise

Across Hampshire and Isle of Wight, GP practices delivered more than 7.6 million appointments between January and July 2026.

That was 11% more than the same period the previous year.

7.6m

Appointments

and

11%

More than the same period in 2025

Most appointments remained face to face.

This demonstrates substantial demand.

It does not by itself identify a market gap.

The commercial question is which part of that workload existing primary-care teams struggle to absorb.

Neighbourhood health is becoming central

Hampshire and Isle of Wight is moving rapidly toward neighbourhood health.

The emerging approach aims to move more care from hospital to community, emphasise prevention rather than solely treating illness, and make suitable use of digital systems. The 24 proposed Hampshire neighbourhood areas illustrate the intended geographic basis for coordinating those changes.

During 2026, 24 neighbourhood areas were proposed across the Hampshire county geography.

These are intended to support more local planning and integrated delivery.

Neighbourhoods are designed around real local differences

The areas are intended to reflect population age, long-term conditions, wider health needs, geographic access and existing communities. A service suitable for Andover may therefore not be appropriate for an affluent commuter area or a remote village.

That is commercially important.

A provider planning a service for Andover should not assume the same model applies in Gosport or the New Forest.

Andover shows how neighbourhood healthcare can develop

The Andover Health Hub has delivered activities such as NHS Health Checks, blood-pressure checks, vaccinations, physiotherapy, pharmacy appointments, prostate-cancer screening and mental-health support. This illustrates how multiple forms of care can be organised outside a conventional GP surgery.

This illustrates the direction of future primary care.

Services may increasingly be organised around shared neighbourhood locations rather than isolated clinics.

Prevention is becoming more important

Hampshire's public-health strategy places strong emphasis on prevention.

Cardiovascular risk, smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, mental wellbeing and falls are relevant priorities as Hampshire aims to keep residents healthy and independent for longer. Prevention creates potential opportunities, but many services are already commissioned or delivered by existing providers.

Primary care is central to identifying and managing these risks early.

Long-term conditions create recurring demand

Hampshire's ageing population will increase multimorbidity.

More people with several long-term conditions may need structured clinical reviews, remote monitoring, medication optimisation, rehabilitation and proactive identification of risk. Providers should examine how ongoing support can integrate into existing care pathways, not rely on isolated one-off assessments.

Community pharmacy is a major part of the primary-care system

Alongside its 210 community pharmacies, the PNA evidence included seven distance-selling pharmacies and 26 dispensing GP practice locations. These are substantial access channels beyond conventional GP appointments.

7

Distance-selling pharmacies

and

26

Dispensing GP practice locations

That is a substantial network.

Pharmacy is relevant when assessing minor illness, preventive services, medicines support, vaccination and contraception. It may compete with, refer to or collaborate with a proposed healthcare service.

Hampshire has fewer pharmacies per population than the national average

The PNA calculates around 14.7 community pharmacies per 100,000 residents.

That is below the national average used in the assessment.

On its own, that might look like evidence of shortage.

The PNA explicitly concludes otherwise.

The PNA finds no current or future general gap

The final 2025–28 assessment judged provider numbers and geographic distribution adequate for existing needs and the anticipated future period. It therefore did not identify a general shortage requiring a new community pharmacy, although particular accessibility issues may still warrant attention.

No general gap requiring an additional pharmacy provider was identified.

This is clear negative evidence for a generic new-pharmacy market-entry case.

Geography explains part of the pharmacy picture

Hampshire is large and rural in places.

The PNA therefore assesses access differently from a dense city.

Overall, 98% of residents live within a five-mile drive of a pharmacy located within the county.

• 98%Within five miles

Most people outside that radius live in sparsely populated rural areas.

Dispensing GP practices also support access.

Dispensing GP practices are important in rural Hampshire

The PNA identifies 26 dispensing-practice locations.

These are particularly relevant where community pharmacies are less convenient.

A full picture of medicine access includes ordinary community pharmacies, dispensing surgeries, cross-boundary provision and distance-selling services. Counting pharmacies alone risks overstating the need for new provision in rural localities.

Pharmacy opening hours are relatively strong

The PNA evidence recorded 187 pharmacies operating on 40-hour contracts and 23 with 100-hour arrangements. Of these services, 182 opened during at least part of Saturday and 40 during at least part of Sunday, extending access beyond the standard working week.

• 187Pharmacies operating under 40-hour contracts
• 23Under 100-hour contractual arrangements
• 182Open for at least part of Saturday
• 40Open for at least part of Sunday

This gives the county substantial extended access.

Pharmacy First changes the minor-illness market

Pharmacy First enables pharmacists to manage defined common conditions without the patient first seeing a GP.

This shifts some demand away from general practice.

A private minor-illness clinic therefore competes not only with GP surgeries.

It also competes with NHS-funded community pharmacy.

Hypertension case finding is widely available

The PNA records 179 Hampshire pharmacies providing blood-pressure checks in its April 2024 evidence.

This gives community pharmacy a substantial role in cardiovascular prevention.

A provider considering a hypertension or cardiovascular service should map this existing capacity first.

Pharmacy vaccination capacity is substantial

During the 2023/24 influenza season, 159 Hampshire pharmacies delivered more than 103,000 vaccinations. This demonstrates how community pharmacy already provides significant preventive clinical capacity.

This demonstrates the scale at which pharmacy already delivers clinical services.

Pharmacy contraception is another expanding service

The Pharmacy Contraception Service allows community pharmacists to initiate or continue oral contraception.

The PNA recorded 67 pharmacies signed up in its November 2023 evidence.

This number is likely to change over the PNA period as the service matures.

A new sexual-health service should account for this NHS-funded access route.

Rural access still creates practical friction

The PNA finds no statutory pharmacy gap.

That does not mean rural access is identical to urban access.

Some people face long journeys, dependence on cars, limited public transport and fewer evening options. A statutory conclusion of sufficient pharmacy provision does not mean every resident has equally convenient access.

A community or mobile healthcare model may therefore solve practical access problems without there being a formal pharmacy shortage.

Deprivation varies sharply within Hampshire

Hampshire is relatively affluent overall.

But it contains areas of significant deprivation.

The 2026 JSNA and 2025 PNA both emphasise local inequality.

Residents in deprived communities may develop chronic conditions earlier, experience lower healthy life expectancy, face greater smoking-related harm and require more preventive support. These differences can also reduce private purchasing power, so funding and service design should reflect local circumstances.

Private-pay capacity can also be lower.

Life-expectancy inequality remains significant

The 2025 PNA records substantial differences in life expectancy between the most and least deprived parts of Hampshire.

This reinforces the importance of neighbourhood-level planning.

A service designed around county-wide affluence may fail to reflect the communities with the greatest clinical need.

Mental health remains a primary-care pressure

General practice is often the first contact for anxiety, depression, stress, disturbed sleep or deterioration in existing mental illness. The neighbourhood model may help connect these presentations with specialist mental-health and community support instead of leaving referrals fragmented.

Hampshire's neighbourhood model creates potential for better integration between mental health and general practice.

A private provider still needs to map existing NHS services carefully.

Digital care is likely to expand

Hampshire and Isle of Wight's neighbourhood strategy explicitly includes a shift from analogue to digital.

Remote monitoring, online follow-up, digital triage and medication reviews may make support more convenient and efficient. Such models need appropriate in-person alternatives and safe escalation for patients whose needs cannot be managed remotely.

The strongest models will integrate with face-to-face care rather than simply replace it.

Private healthcare has several distinct Hampshire markets

Hampshire includes many affluent areas.

Affluent areas may support demand for private GP access, screening, diagnostics, occupational health or specialist consultations. However, the volume and nature of that demand must be tested for each service.

Hart, Winchester and New Forest present different customer profiles from Havant, Rushmoor or Gosport. County-level income indicators are too blunt to determine where a private medical business can attract paying patients.

The target market needs to be local.

Employer-funded health may be another route

Defence, technology, logistics, manufacturing, professional services and public-sector employers provide potential business-to-business markets for occupational or preventive healthcare. Purchasing decisions and service requirements will differ from those of individual self-funded patients.

Occupational-health and employer-funded healthcare can therefore provide a commercial route distinct from direct consumer private care.

Workforce availability remains a constraint

New providers compete with NHS general practice, hospitals, community trusts, pharmacies and other private clinics. Strong patient need cannot be turned into delivered appointments without enough qualified staff.

Clinical demand is only useful if the workforce can be recruited.

The recruitment model should examine the actual availability of GPs, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and mental-health professionals with suitable experience, rather than assume staffing follows investment.

CQC registration depends on the clinical model

A healthcare business does not require one standard form of CQC registration.

Depending on the activity and applicable exemptions, registration may involve treatment of disease, disorder or injury; diagnostic and screening procedures; surgical procedures; or certain remote medical-advice and triage services. The regulatory scope should follow the clinical work undertaken rather than the clinic's name or premises.

The service model should determine the regulatory scope.

What does the Hampshire primary-care market actually show?

Hampshire has very high primary-care demand and extensive existing infrastructure.

General practice

Twenty-three PCNs across the county geography in the current NHS structure. New services should solve a defined pathway problem rather than simply add appointments.

Neighbourhood health

One of the strongest current strategic areas. Hampshire is developing 24 neighbourhood areas around local population need.

Prevention

Strong alignment with public-health priorities and healthy ageing.

Long-term conditions

A major growth area as the population ages.

Community pharmacy

A large network with no general current or future gap identified by the 2025–28 PNA.

Pharmacy First

An established route that reduces some minor-illness pressure on general practice.

Rural access

Practical friction remains despite overall adequate provision.

Private healthcare

Potentially attractive in affluent localities, but highly variable by district.

Occupational health

A credible alternative commercial route in employment-heavy areas.

If you are considering a regulated healthcare service in Hampshire, the Should I Start? Market Report can test the specific service, locality and route to demand against the same local evidence used here.

Questions to answer before starting a primary-care service in Hampshire

A prospective provider should be able to answer:

1. Which patient group is the service for?
2. Which PCN or neighbourhood is relevant?
3. What existing NHS service already manages the need?
4. What pressure does the service remove?
5. Who will refer patients?
6. Who will pay?
7. Is the model NHS-funded, private or employer-funded?
8. How does community pharmacy affect the opportunity?
9. Is Pharmacy First already meeting part of the need?
10. Is rural access part of the problem?
11. How will the service fit neighbourhood health?
12. Which regulated activities apply?
13. Can clinicians be recruited?
14. What evidence demonstrates commercial viability?

If the clinical and commercial case is clear and the service will require CQC registration, you can get a proposal comparing specially selected and verified CQC registration specialists for the service you intend to register.