In the health news

Publication date: 16 May 2025

Last year, the RCGP’s press team secured almost 20,000 media hits across print, broadcast and online outlets. The College regularly features in the news to be the voice for general practice on issues that matter to members, including GP workload and workforce, health inequalities and preventive health. We’re frequently quoted in articles covering wide-ranging clinical, health policy and wider societal issues. In the health news’ is our regular round-up of media coverage featuring the College and its spokespeople, and will be updated on a weekly basis.

16 May 2025

Assisted dying

RCGP Scotland Chair Chris Provan featured in The Scotsman and the Scottish Daily Mail responding to the passing of Stage One of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill in Holyrood. He raised concerns about the Bill progressing in its current form, and called for an opt-in system to be set up for any assisted dying specialised service.

The College’s intervention ahead of the report stage of the Assisted Dying Bill in Westminster, making clear off the back of BBC research that GPs have differing views about assisted dying and concerns about the Bill that need to be addressed, has continued to be covered in the media via two stories distributed by Press Association.

We were quoted in both stories in the Independent (MP response and RCP), MailOnline (MP response and RCP), Standard (MP response and RCP) and in a range of regional publications. We also featured in Pulse who ran a story based on their own survey of GPs which found under one in four would be prepared to be involved in assisted dying to completion.

Whole person care

RCGP Scotland’s latest paper Whole person medical care: the value of the GP (PDF file, 931 KB) secured coverage in GPOnline. The report outlines the benefits to the NHS as a whole of an adequately funded general practice. 

Blended learning

We featured in Pulse responding to concerns raised by the BMA GP Registrar Committee on ‘blended learning’ and NHS England’s pilot to expand GP training capacity with some remote learning. The College is following the progress of the pilot closely and our statement made clear that no more than six months of GP speciality training should be spent in non-patient facing posts.

Smacking ban

The College was a signatory to calls – led by the RCPCH – on the Government to ban the physical punishment of children, the story achieved coverage in Pulse.

14 May 2025

Assisted dying

RCGP Chair Kamila Hawthorne spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme (2:42:30) and to BBC Radio 5 Live (2:09:10) on the Assisted Dying Bill, in advance of the Report Stage which is set to take place in the Commons later this week. Kamila outlined the College’s position agreed at the last UK Council - of neither supporting nor opposing assisted dying being legal – highlighting that any introduction of assisted dying will need to be a standalone service and not part of general practice, and not come at the expense of palliative care provision.

Our response to BBC polling on GPs’ attitudes to assisted dying - which stated that the bill must address GP concern around the practical and legal implications - was covered by BBC Online, ITV Online, The Standard, The Times, the Telegraph, Mail Online, Press Association, as well as BBC Breakfast and syndicated to regional TV channels. The story was also included on news packages and bulletins across BBC national and local radio stations.

You can find our responses on our website to the:

Weight-loss drugs

We featured in The Guardian, The Express as well as stories with both The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph responding to a study which found that weight-loss medications – primarily Mounjaro and Wegovy – can reduce cravings for alcohol and could act as a potential treatment for alcohol use disorder. Our statement explained that while it’s important that these findings are considered as clinical guidelines for weight-loss jabs are developed, the medication should not be seen as a silver bullet for either weight-loss or to suppress cravings for alcohol.