They've been described as the 'beating heart' and the 'backbone' of the NHS. And for most of us our local doctor is our first and most frequent point of contact with the health service.
"It can be incredibly frustrating for patients when they're not able to access services. It's incredibly frustrating for staff as well. "There needs to be a genuine and significant drive to improve community care - and that means all community services, including social care. Slogans like 'joined up' and 'integration' have been around for ages, but we need to ask why have these things never come to fruition.
Last year 340 million appointments were delivered, a 9% increase on 2019. In a scathing report published in October the health and social care committee described general practice as being 'in crisis' and accused the government and NHS England of ignoring 'unsustainable' workload pressures and a growing shortage of medics.
Just half said they were satisfied in their work, down from 70% in 2021. Responding to the findings Prof Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said it was a 'stark reminder of the workforce crisis facing general practice'. "The long-awaited NHS workforce plan is the opportunity to make sure general practice is fit for the future. We need to see a bold new plan from the Government that goes beyond the target of 6,000 more GPs it pledged in its election manifesto, including revitalised recruitment and retention schemes."
"There are much more lucrative offers to work in the Middle East, in Canada. They need more GPs and the pay and workload is much better. Family ties and being invested in the NHS probably keep people here, but you can't keep running on goodwill." "We need more retention, we need to increase the number of GPs and invest in the estate. We need to increase accessibility for patients, whether that's digitally, for those that are able, or other ways for those are not.
"We know we have a deflated and demoralised workforce, who are working harder than we've ever worked before, but we also know that the public are still not satisfied and the service is not meeting the general need. People are emigrating to Dubai, Qatar, New Zealand where the money is much better, the lifestyle is better and there's not as much demand or pressure.
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