SOS for general practice as RCGP calls for rescue plan

The Royal College of GPs has said that an emergency rescue package is needed for crisis-torn general practice if patients are to receive the care they need once the pandemic is over.

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, says that the job of GPs was ‘largely undoable’ even before the coronavirus pandemic, but that general practice is now ‘at breaking point’.

He is urging the government and NHS England to ‘save’ general practice by implementing a five-point recovery plan to prevent GPs and other members of the practice team from burning out and ensure patients can continue to receive the care they need, well into the future.

The action plan for recovery calls for: a ‘ramping up’ of efforts to deliver the 2019 Conservative manifesto target of 6,000 more full time equivalent (FTE) GPs in the next three years; a system-wide programme to eradicate bureaucratic burdens and unnecessary workload by 2024, allowing GPs more time to care for patients and prevent GP burnout; improving the recruitment and integration of at least 26,000 other members of staff into the general practice workforce by 2024; general practice infrastructure that is fit for purpose by 2024, to allow GPs to deliver care in a safe way from modern buildings and using reliable technology; and for GPs to have a strong voice in integrated care systems in order to eliminate the waste associated with fragmented services, and in designing care for the communities they serve.

Marshall said: “The launch of our five point action plan sends out an SOS for general practice – and crucially, it also provides realistic solutions for halting the crisis and protecting the care of our patients and the wider NHS by investing in the hardworking GPs and their teams who provide that care.

“GPs and their teams have played a pivotal role throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering essential services to patients and leading the Covidvaccination programme - two thirds of all vaccinations have been delivered in primary care.

“Even before the pandemic, millions of patients a week were seen in general practice and GPs were already under immense workload and workforce pressures. But these pressures are now unsustainable and must be urgently addressed as we move beyond the ‘emergency’ pandemic period and GPs deal with the aftermath of Covid in their local communities -  including ‘long Covid’ and the additional mental and physical health problems it is causing in patients of all ages.

“We simply do not have enough GPs to meet the needs of a growing and ageing population, with increasingly complex conditions, on top of managing the fallout and work backlog from the pandemic. If general practice collapses, the rest of the NHS will follow not far behind it.”