President addresses RCGP conference 2026

What if the most important years for general practice are not behind us, but ahead of us?

Today our President Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown opened our Annual Conference in Glasgow with a call to recognise the distinctive value of general practice and help shape its future, alongside the launch of the College’s first-ever State of General Practice report.

The report reveals a striking gap between the ambitions for healthcare reform and the reality facing general practice. Only 45% of GPs surveyed say they can offer relational continuity, while just 18% say they have enough time to offer preventive health advice.

“We see the whole person. We hold uncertainty. We make sense of complexity. And we do this not at one isolated moment, but across a lifetime.”

Professor Tzortziou Brown, a GP in East London, also highlighted the College's advocacy across all four nations, including progress on funding, workforce and coordination of care, alongside its willingness to challenge proposals that could undermine safe, high-quality general practice.

“We will support change where it improves care. And we will have the courage to challenge it when the evidence and our professional values demand it.”

Speaking directly to the next generation of GPs, she emphasised the responsibility to create a stronger and more sustainable profession for those who follow.

“The future of general practice is not already written. It is ours to shape.”

Read the speech in full (Docx file, 32 KB)

Read the State of General Practice report

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.