Chronology of The RCGP by Subject

Foundation of the College

Foundation of the College
1948		Formation of the NHS
1950		Formation of the General Practice section of the RSM.
25^th March 1950		Publication in *The Lancet* of "General Practice In England Today – A Reconnaissance" by Joseph S. Collings. Collings concluded that whilst specialist medicine had been growing and developing there were no standards for general practice, no incentives to go into it and that the demands of national insurance have put an intolerable strain upon the GP. "An attempt should be made to define the future province and function of general practice within the frame work of the National Health Service. This deliberative task should, in the first instance, be undertaken by the people most concerned – namely "ordinary" general practitioners."
25^th March 1950		Editorial in The Lancet "General practice is at the cross-roads. The General Practitioner sees himself being elbowed out of hospital, finds himself more isolated from his colleagues in specialist and consulting practice, is plagued by paper work, and sees little prospect of obtaining those pleasant conditions of work so alluringly offered to him by propagandists for the National Health Service during the years before July 1948."
1950		Sir Henry Cohen report "General Practice and the Training of the General Practitioner", published by BMA, calls for three years vocational training. "General practice is a special form of practice which must be founded on general basic principles and appropriate postgraduate study."
April 1951		John Hunt was appointed to a committee on general practice of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
June 1951		George MacFeat publishes a proposal for a College in the BMJ "The family doctor" which John Hunt replied to. This indirectly led to John Hunt writing his memoranda on the subject to the BMA.
October 1951		The General Practice Review Committee of the British Medical Association considers memoranda by FM Rose and John Hunt both arguing for a college.
28 February 1952		Steering committee brought together. "General Practitioners … are essential to the heart and soul of medicine. It is increasingly realised that this development and emancipation of general practice is not only a question of professional pride and status but is an urgent economic need. Only by developing a higher standard of general practice, and by making full use of properly trained general practitioners (with access to hospital and laboratory facilities), can the present overcrowding of outpatient departments and excessive specialist consultations be avoided."
19 November 1952		Foundation of the College of General Practitioners as an unincorporated association at 14 Blackfriars Lane, London EC4 [The Society of Apothecaries].
17 December 1952		Finance & General Purposes Committee elected
1 January 1953		The Practitioner: "The foundation of this College is an outstanding event in the history of British medicine…".

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