Submit your questions for RCGP chair Dr Maureen Baker
We are hosting an online Q&A with the RCGP chair Dr Maureen Baker and would like you to submit your questions.
Last year, the RCGP was at the centre of some of the most important stories in general practice - most notably the judicial review into the pass rate discrepancies of the college’s CSA exam. Dr Baker was also named the country’s most influential GP in Pulse’s annual Power 50 list.
With the general election looming, and no doubt another important year for general practice - Pulse invites you to submit any burning questions you may have for the RCGP chair.
The hour-long Q&A, which will take place on Monday 2 February at 1pm, will be splashed on Pulse’s homepage.
You can leave questions for Dr Baker in the comments below or tweet them to @Pulsetoday using the hashtag #AskBaker. Alternatively, you can email them to feedback@pulsetoday.co.uk and you will also be able to ask your questions on the day.
**We have a lot of questions to get through, so please be concise, respectful and leave your name - if possible - as this makes your query more likely to be asked**
Readers' comments (46)
Anonymous | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 5:19pm
Why are you so keen to be conciliatory and accommodating and soft bellied, to the politicians who are destroying everything in their path regards your colleagues careers ? Please don't quote well rehearsed guff about having to work with them. You will be gone in a matter of months why not launch a full scale full frontal assault on the total destruction these politicians are causing, you would leave with total respect of your colleagues instead of disappointed mediocre beige memories of your time in office.
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Anonymous | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 5:29pm
What have you failed so badly at reflecting the anger in the profession ? You should care more about the support and opinions of fellow GPs, who are grossly saddened by your repeated capitulation to your political masters . You have not represented us, nor our opinions, like above I suggest you throw caution to the wind and elbow your way onto airwaves pre-election to vent real spleen about governments normalisation of unilaterally altering out contract to whatever's politically popular. You know the politicians don't care about you and they don't care about patients. Why the hell don't you say it. ?
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Anonymous | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 5:37pm
Are you aware that many GPs think you are the 'Gordon Brown' of recent RCGP presidents, and an embarrassment due to your dreadful performances when dealing with the media. Any GPs I know have been actually screaming at the TV disagreeing with your approach of never saying NO to anything the DOH / politicians suggest . It really is as simple as learning to say NO . Where is your passion or vision. Remaining time should be used to try and scrape together some credibility in your colleagues eyes by speaking straight to the public about the imminent total destruction of everything they have come to value about the NHS.
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Tom Gillham | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 5:45pm
Would you want to work as a salaried GP in an ICO?
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Anonymous | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 5:57pm
Is it moral to mislead young doctors that ' the future is bright in General Practice ' and attempt to persuade them to become cannon fodder, when you and all of us know that is utter nonsense.
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Anonymous | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 6:00pm
Are you going to publicly apologise to grassroots GPs for entirely failing to fight our corner ?
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Shaba Nabi | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 9:58pm
Many questions but honed down to a few
1. Why is the RCGP recruitment video so boring? How is picking up scripts from reception going to entice young people? Why didn't you show GPs working on cruise ships, the antarctic, being involved with education, doing endoscopies etc? These are all the things that make the career so great as it is versatile
2. Why do trainees (and trainers) have to go through so many hoops to get qualified? Why do we have to indulge in so much navel gazing when what they really need is the ability to multi-task, manage uncertainty, take risks and lead a team. Training doesn't equip them for a lot of stuff ( I speak as a Trainer and Educator)
3. If the college is about standing up for quality and clinical governance, is there not an issue with the mushrooming of clinical contacts that can occur in one day's surgery? Is this not a serious threat to our standards of care?
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Anonymous | Salaried GP27 Jan 2015 10:50pm
Whose side are you on? It doesn't feel like mine
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Anonymous | GP Partner27 Jan 2015 10:59pm
I feel many in the profession have been extremely disappointed by your lack of backbone and appearing to capitulate totally with the politicians when there is genuine anger about the way we are treated
More and more work diverted our way with no funding
12 hour working days the norm
Reams of bureaucracy and tick box exercises
GPs retiring early or emigrating
That ridiculous recruitment video which gave absolutely no true facts about reality of GP now
In your time left grow a pair of round ones and tell the numptys in DoH the truth about the grim reality of being a GP in UK in 2015 and stop the apologetic sound bites- we deserve far more robust representation as sorry to say this and not personal but you have been so mediocre that not sure what you actually achieved
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Took Early Retirement | Other GP28 Jan 2015 8:16am
Are you aware that you are appearing to be an apologist for and, indeed, a mouthpiece for, the DoH?
Do you believe there is a crisis in GP retention and recruitment?
Do you feel the current new "10 point plan" will produce an additional 5000 WTE GPs?
Do you get the feeling that anyone at the DOH gives a tinker's cuss, or do they want to just get to May in the hope there will then be a new policy?
John Glasspool FRCGP- who retired 2.5 years years early from partnership (and left being a trainer before that) because I could no longer stand what GP had become.
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