College letter to new Health Secretary

Dear Rt Hon James Murray MP

Congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

With polls consistently showing that access to general practice is the public’s number one priority for improving the NHS, I am keen to meet with you to discuss how the Royal College of GPs can help meet public expectations and deliver on the Government’s commitment to move more care from hospitals to the community. The key issues I would like to discuss are:

The implementation of the 10 Year Plan for the NHS and the introduction of Health Bill

The College has always supported the Government’s ambition to move more NHS care out of hospitals and into local communities - this is where care is most cost-effective and where patients want to be treated - but we have always been clear that to be successful, this shift must be adequately resourced.

To help with this shift the NHS Modernisation Bill is an opportunity to introduce a primary care investment standard similar to the one for mental health introduced in the 2022 Health and Care Act. This would ensure that there is full transparency of reporting at national and local levels of the share of NHS funding going to primary care and general practice. With the share of NHS funding going to general practice at a ten-year low this would be an important measure to make sure the Government is able to meet its commitment to move care from hospitals to the community.

For neighbourhood health to be a success it is vital that GPs are at the heart of the system. It is therefore concerning that the Bill as currently drafted removes the primary care representation from Integrated Care Boards. GPs are uniquely positioned within the NHS because we care for patients across the whole pathway of care and often over many years, giving us a detailed understanding of how different parts of the health system interact in practice, where pressures emerge, and where patients can fall through gaps between services. That insight should be represented in local NHS leadership and decision-making.

The upcoming 10-year workforce plan

We were very pleased when your predecessor announced the review of the current NHS workforce plan, acknowledging that it was unacceptable to only aim to increase GP numbers by 4% compared to a 49% increase in hospital doctors.

With the number of patients per fully qualified GP rising by 14% since 2015 the new workforce plan needs to reverse this trend and set out a clear strategy to train, employ and retain enough GPs to meet patient needs.

I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet to discuss how we can support you with these important issues. General practice is both the public's priority for improving the NHS and the key to solving many of the challenge of making the Government’s plans for the NHS a reality.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown

President of RCGP Council

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.