The Right Modern Primary Care PMS for Efficient, Scalable GP Delivery
Table of Contents Help Others Discover – Click to Share! Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Table of Contents THE PRESSURE, IN NUMBERS: In July 2026, 63.2 million patients were registered with GP practices, while the number of full-time equivalent GPs stood at just 29,057. Primary care is managing more patients, more appointments and more routes into care than ever. In July 2026, 63.2 million patients were registered with GP practices, while the number of full-time equivalent GPs stood at 29,057. That is 307 fewer FTE GPs than in September 2015, while the number of patients per FTE GP reached 2,176 – 12.3% higher than in 2015. GP practices also recorded 34.9 million appointments in July, including 6.7 million clinically urgent appointments. The numbers, at a glance: Metric Figure Patients registered with GP practices (Jul 2026) 63.2m Full-time equivalent GPs 29,057 Fewer FTE GPs than Sept 2015 -307 Patients per FTE GP 2,176 Increase in patients per GP vs. 2015 +12.3% GP appointments recorded (Jul 2026) 34.9m Clinically urgent appointments 6.7m With demand and workforce pressures moving in different directions, effective primary care management increasingly depends on connected digital systems that can bring patient access, clinical information, appointments, referrals and follow-up into one coordinated environment. The NHS 10-Year Health Plan sets out three major shifts: hospital to community, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital. This direction places greater emphasis on neighbourhood-based, multidisciplinary and digitally connected care. For primary care organisations, the technology supporting that model needs to connect people, information and processes across the patient journey. Where Cellma Fits Into Primary Care Cellma is an integrated EHR, PAS and healthcare management platform designed to connect the different activities involved in delivering care. Rather than treating appointments, patient records, referrals, clinical documentation and reporting as separate functions, Cellma brings them together within a connected digital environment. For primary care teams, this can mean managing: Patient registration and demographics Appointments and scheduling Clinical documentation Referrals and referral tracking Prescriptions and medication information Care plans and follow-ups Patient communications Patient-facing digital services Reporting and business intelligence Population health information Administrative workflows This gives primary care management teams a broader operational view while allowing clinicians to work with the information relevant to the patient in front of them. Cellma Connects the Patient Journey A patient’s journey rarely ends with a GP consultation. A patient may move from a GP to a pharmacist, community service, specialist team or another healthcare professional. Each transition creates a need for relevant information to move with the patient. Cellma is designed to support this connected journey. A typical pathway can involve: Patient access → Appointment → Assessment → Clinical documentation → Referral → Treatment → Follow-up → Reporting Each stage can be supported within the Cellma ecosystem. For example, an appointment can be recorded alongside the patient’s clinical information. A referral can be created and tracked. Clinical notes can be documented digitally. Follow-up activity can remain visible to the appropriate teams. The result is a more connected foundation for primary care management, rather than a collection of disconnected administrative tasks. CellmaPatientPortal Brings Patients Into the Digital Journey Digital access is now an important part of primary care. The NHS App provides patients with access to a growing range of digital services, while NHS guidance places increasing emphasis on online journeys and patient-facing services. CellmaPatientPortal extends this digital approach by supporting functions such as: ✓ Appointment booking ✓ Prescription-related access ✓ Medical history ✓ Patient messaging ✓ Access to relevant health information ✓ Digital requests and communication RioMed also states that CellmaPatientPortal can integrate with the NHS App, supporting a connected route for patients to access records, book appointments and manage aspects of their care. For primary care providers, this creates an opportunity to move routine patient interactions into digital channels while keeping those interactions connected to the underlying patient record. That matters because patient-facing technology should not sit separately from primary care management. The digital front door needs to connect with the systems used by staff behind it. Interoperability Is Built Into the Cellma Approach Primary care does not operate in isolation. NHS England states that interoperability is the ability for people and systems to work across software and organisational boundaries with minimal human intervention. It also states that new general practice systems must be interoperable. Cellma is designed around this requirement. Its interoperability approach includes support for: FHIR and HL7 for healthcare data exchange REST/Open APIs for system-to-system connectivity GP Connect for appropriate GP information-sharing use cases NHS Spine services Personal Demographic Service (PDS) Summary Care Record (SCR) Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) e-Referral Service (e-RS) CIS2 MESH SNOMED CT NHS and PRSB-aligned information standards NHS England identifies FHIR as a key technology for making integration with APIs and services easier, while GP Connect enables authorised users and systems to share and view GP information for direct patient care. This is important for primary care management because interoperability is not simply an IT feature. It affects how information moves between teams and how much manual work is required to transfer, locate or re-enter information. From Patient Record to Day-to-Day Workflow Cellma is not limited to storing patient information. It supports the operational processes around that information. Appointment Management Cellma provides appointment and scheduling capabilities to help teams manage availability, bookings, clinics and patient attendance. Digital access can also allow patients to interact with services without every request requiring manual intervention from reception teams. Referral Management Referrals can be recorded and tracked as part of the patient’s digital journey. Teams can maintain visibility of referral activity, relevant clinical information and follow-up requirements rather than treating each referral as an isolated administrative task. Clinical Documentation Cellma supports digital clinical documentation and structured patient records. This provides clinicians with a central place to record relevant information during consultations and across subsequent interactions. Communication Cellma supports communication between healthcare teams and patients through integrated digital functions. This can include patient messaging and other communication workflows, helping keep relevant information within the