The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has warned the new health secretary Wes Streeting that ‘funding and not wholesale reform’ is needed to address the crisis in general practice.
In an open letter to Mr Streeting, DAUK’s GP committee said general practice could not keep up with current demand because it had been underfunded for almost a decade.
Referring to its pre-election manifesto for general practice, the committee said: “To restore levels of real terms funding last seen in 2015, would cost the equivalent of £3 per patient per month.
“The reason general practice cannot keep up with current acute demand is because we are trying to function in 2024 after almost a decade of underfunding.
“We do not need wholesale reform, we need to be funded.”
The committee offered to meet Mr Streeting to discuss the issues in general practice and to work with him to help resolve them.
And it cautioned against ‘the implementation of policies which seek to separate acute and chronic care’.
“This is unevidenced and, most importantly, patients have not been asked if this is what they want,” the committee said.
“Furthermore, it is at odds with the idea of a family doctor, where every interaction helps build the bigger picture of the underlying causes of each patient’s presentation.
“Disrupt this model, and care will be fragmented, more expensive and less efficient.”
