College hits back at claims that GP access is increasing pressure on A&E

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, has written to Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid in response to comments made at the Health Select Committee’s inquiry into clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic.

The letter has attracted coverage in today’s Guardian and elsewhere. The College will continue to defend hardworking GPs and their teams against criticism.

Professor Marshall said: “GPs and our teams, like colleagues right across the NHS, are working under intense pressures that have only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. There will be many reasons for mounting pressures in A&E but we’re unaware of any hard evidence that significantly links them to GP access. Indeed, GPs and our teams make the vast majority of patient contacts in the NHS and in doing so our service alleviates pressures elsewhere in the health service, including Emergency Departments.”

Read the letter to the Secretary of the State (PDF File, 162 KB).

Read our full statement.

Further information

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

Notes to editor

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 52,000 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.