Campaigning to make general practice Fit for the Future

Every year the RCGP carries out a ‘state of the nation’ survey of our members and your experiences of being on the frontline of patient care.

This year’s results show the starkest signs yet of a profession in crisis.

With 68% of GPs saying they don’t have enough time to adequately assess and treat patients during appointments, and 42% saying that they are planning to quit the profession in the next five years, the need for urgent action has never been clearer.

The RCGP wants the Government to commit to a bold new plan to provide GPs with the support that they need to do the job safely, for themselves and their teams as well as for their patients.

As such, it has launched a new Fit for the Future campaign calling for:

• A new recruitment and retention strategy to go beyond the target of 6,000 more GPs pledged by the Government in their election manifesto

• An NHS-wide effort to free up GPs to spend more ti with patients by cutting unnecessary work oad and bureaucracy

• Investment in IT products and support for practices

• A return to 11% of total health spend for general practice, including £1 billion additional investment in GP premises.

To kickstart the campaign, the College asked GPs across England to add their name to a letter to the Health Secretary, then Sajid Javid. The response was unprecedented, with 4,620 GPs signing up.

”It’s clear that many practices are already in crisis, and without action things are likely to get worse. That is why we are calling for a bold new plan to provide GPs and patients with the support that they need.”

In the letter, College Chair Martin Marshall, wrote: ”As GPs, retired GPs and GPs in training in England we are writing to ask you to take action in response to the RCGP's Fit for the Future campaign. General practice is the cornerstone of the NHS. It helps more patients than the rest of the NHS put together. So, when GPs and their patients say that general practice is in crisis, we should all be concerned.

He added: ”We were amazed at the response, especially when our hardpressed members have so many other demands on their time. It shows the strength of feeling amongst GPs who are doing the very best they can to deliver high quality care to their patients but in the most difficult circumstances.”

What no one could have predicted was the Government’s own ‘crisis’, just as the campaign was launched. The Secretary of State quit in the week the letter was delivered, and a few hours before Prof Marshall was due to meet the Prime Minister's health team to discuss the campaign, Boris Johnson himself announced he was stepping down.

Despite the political turmoil, the College is keeping up the pressure on new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Thérèse Coffey, as well as with new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, for solutions to the workload and workforce pressures affecting GPs at all career stages.

One issue of major concern is the difficulty trainees from outside the UK are experiencing with the visa system. The College is working with these doctors to see how it can influence the Home Office to simplify the system and ensure that their skills are not lost to the profession and patient care.

It is also working with the RCGP Faculties across England to help them engage with their local MPs and Integrated Care Systems leads.

Prof Marshall said: ”NHS pressures are not confined to hospitals and we’re making it very clear to Government what is needed to make general practice safe and sustainable, both for patients and GPs and our teams,t now and in the future. Our members have very real concerns and we need positive changes that will allow us to deliver the care our patients need, and the type of care that we want to deliver, without this affecting our own health and wellbeing.”

The next action from the campaign will be the launch of a new College report on GP retention. •