![\"Head](\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/wes-streeting-v2.jpg\")
Dr Ellen Welch, DAUK vice-chair, said proper funding for general practice to meet demand, which is at an all-time high, to retain and recruit GPs, and stop the closing down of practices should be the priority for the Government when it comes to primary care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said: \u201cIn England, the number of medical staff working in hospitals has increased by thousands \u2013 163 per cent more consultants over the past 25 years \u2013 while general practices have closed in their hundreds, and the primary care workforce is shrinking with almost 2,000 fewer GPs than we had in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demand<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDespite this, demand is high, and an average of 1.4 million GP appointments per working day were delivered between March 2023 and February 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn top of this, GPs are being expected by hospital teams to perform additional work for free. Every day, general practices across the UK receive letters asking GPs to kindly complete an array of unfunded tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReferral forms are a small part of our daily red tape but much more time is spent dealing with unfunded requests from secondary care such as ordering and chasing blood tests and investigations; providing fit notes or prescriptions for patients who have been seen in hospital; referring patients to another specialist; and chasing relatively small pots of money from ICBs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the past decade, funding for hospitals has grown twice as fast as funding for general practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGetting rid of a few referral forms will not revolutionise primary care, and on the whole GPs have taken the initiative to do this already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collective action<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The GP Committee also responded to Mr Streeting\u2019s call for GPs in England to end collective action, with the Health Secretary saying he understood why doctors \u2018wanted to give the previous government a kicking\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GP spokesperson Dr Rosie Shire said: \u201cCollective action is not about giving anyone a ‘kicking’. It is about doing what we are contracted and paid to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo other section of society expects public or private sector workers to do work for free, and NHS general practice can no longer allow the service to run on goodwill when they are at risk of closing under the pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GP spokesperson Dr Sarah Jacques said investment was also needed in IT and estates to improve efficiency. Indeed, the Darzi review of the NHS found that ‘crumbling buildings hit productivity’ as well as impacted staff morale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Jacques said: \u201cPrimary care needs a fully-funded model with the promise of a long-term uplift to core funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBuildings which are not fit for purpose and IT belonging somewhere in the last decade also need urgent attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnly then will we see some meaningful change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n