Skip to main content

GPs 'constantly firefighting' to keep up with patient demands

GPs are “constantly firefighting” to keep up with increased patient demand, doctors’ representatives warned yesterday.

Helen Stokes-Lampard, who chairs the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said family doctors are “really struggling” with a “constantly escalating” workload.

An assessment by the RCGP of the GP Forward View, a government programme launched in 2016 to provide general practices with 5,000 more doctors and an extra £2.4 billion in investment each year by 2021, has concluded that the promises are nowhere near good enough.

The college is urging ministers to raise promised investment to £14.5bn over the next two years — £2.5bn more than planned under the GP Forward View.

Professor Stokes-Lampard pointed out that Britain is now short of 6,000 GPs.

She urged NHS England to revise its plans completely, saying: “We are not turning our back on the GP Forward View. It remains the most constructive — indeed only — solution to tackling the intense resource and workforce pressures facing general practice and it is making good strides in some areas.

“But it needs an urgent overhaul to address the pledges that are not progressing fast enough, particularly around retaining our existing workforce and reducing our workload, and to recognise the changing landscape of NHS funding, which now includes a promise of £20bn extra a year by 2023.”

NHS England reaffirmed that it would create a long-term plan for GP recruitment and accused the RCGP of “plucking implausible figures from the air.”

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 13,288
We need:£ 4,712
3 Days remaining
Donate today