Different patients have different needs - but all are impacted by resource and workforce pressures in general practice

Responding to today’s Daily Mail article suggesting patients face a postcode lottery when it comes to accessing face-to-face appointments:

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The latest GP patient survey reported an increase in patients reporting a good experience of general practice with 95% of patients saying they have confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw, and 94% saying their needs were met when they last visited their local practice. Given the intense workforce and workload pressures in general practice, that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic, this is remarkable and testament to the hard work of GPs and our teams.

"Different areas will have different patient demographics, and patients will have different health needs and individual practices will deliver their care and services in a way that meets these best. It’s also the case that under-investment in general practice by successive governments and the chronic shortage of GPs and other members of the team, whilst impacting on the service everywhere, will undoubtedly be affecting some areas and some practices more than others.

“The Government needs to act now to address this by working to build the GP workforce by at least the 6,000 full-time equivalent family doctors that have been promised, as well as other members of the practice team, and address the 'undoable' workload in general practice that is leading to trained family doctors leaving the profession earlier than planned.”

Further information

(For media only)

RCGP Press office – 020 3188 7633/7494/7574
Out of hours: 020 3188 7659 
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editor

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 53,000 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.