Dr Michelle Drage, CEO, Londonwide LMCs said:
“The Government’s modest additional support for the NHS and lack of detail on general practice offers thin gruel when set against the challenge of reversing more than a decade of damaging underfunding. This is a disappointment when the profession shares the Government’s stated view that preventative care, provided in the community, is the most effective route to resolving the current pan-NHS crisis that affects so many patients. But preventative care is not simply a single transaction, nor is general care. Prevention is built on a long-term relationship between a patient and their registered doctor, developing over time to a real basis of trust, and practices need the wherewithal to deliver this continuity.
“General practice faces substantial challenges in prioritising safe and clinically appropriate care for patients, with the knock-on pressures on staff retention created by these demoralising daily choices. Only when practices are given the flexibility and means to meet the demand on their services, and relieved of top-down interference can they focus on the continuity of care that is so fundamental and motivating to everyone working in general practice.”
Dr Drage on infrastructure spending:
“Looking to address the long-standing underfunding of public sector infrastructure is a step in the right direction, but a fair slice of this money needs to reach general practice if the Government’s ambitions to improve prevention and community-based care are to be realised. Londoners in particular suffer from the fact their GP practices are all too often in cramped buildings which were never designed to be used as doctors’ surgeries. This is compounded by the high price of land and building costs in the Capital.”
Dr Drage on plans to improve record sharing in the NHS:
“Improving data sharing might yield some longer-term productivity gains, but planning and implementing it will absorb time and energy in the short-term, and that is time and energy that we simply do not have to spare. The main problem facing general practice and the wider NHS is not a lack of data showing what patients need, it is that there is not enough capacity to move care from short-term firefighting to long-term, preventative medicine.”
Notes:
- Londonwide LMCs offers resources to support safe working in practices via this pack, including a recently published webinar.
- Londonwide LMCs’ general practice awards nominations are open until 30 November, we are also encouraging those working in general practice to attend the awards event at the Houses of Parliament by 6 December. The event is on the afternoon of 6 February 2025, Journalists are welcome to attend and should register via our communications team.