The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has warned the new health secretary Wes Streeting that \u2018funding and not wholesale reform\u2019 is needed to address the crisis in general practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an open letter to Mr Streeting, DAUK\u2019s GP committee said general practice could not keep up with current demand because it had been underfunded for almost a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Referring to its pre-election manifesto for general practice<\/a>, the committee said: \u201cTo restore levels of real terms funding last seen in 2015, would cost the equivalent of \u00a33 per patient per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe reason general practice cannot keep up with current acute demand is because we are trying to function in 2024 after almost a decade of underfunding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe do not need wholesale reform, we need to be funded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The committee offered to meet Mr Streeting to discuss the issues in general practice and to work with him to help resolve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it cautioned against \u2018the implementation of policies which seek to separate acute and chronic care\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is unevidenced and, most importantly, patients have not been asked if this is what they want,\u201d the committee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFurthermore, it is at odds with the idea of a family doctor, where every interaction helps build the bigger picture of the underlying causes of each patient\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDisrupt this model, and care will be fragmented, more expensive and less efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n