A new blog for a new government – so what do we think Labour will do to help General Practice? So far, Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is making all the right noises by promising to divert funds from hospitals to invest into general practice. My concern is the time taken to achieve this, when many practices are already facing financial uncertainty due to rising expenses.
There is an urgent need to mitigate the rise in utility costs and the impact of the introduction of the national minimum wage, to prevent practices from becoming financially unviable. From a workforce perspective, practices need the temporary option of inclusion of GPs and practice nurses into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. This will not only reduce the current underemployment of GPs, but it will also provide valuable appointments to address patient access. I view this as a temporary option because a new GP contract should be all about funding CORE general practice, rather than the complex add-ons we have ended up with.
But the Chair of GPC England has articulated the needs of general practice very well in her open letter to Wes Streeting, which outline immediate and longer term priorities.
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein
