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RCGP chair denies suggesting GP partnership model is ‘unfit for purpose’
Voters ‘will expect incoming Government to solve GP crisis’, say GP leaders
15:40 BMA deputy chair Dr David Wrigley, co-author of the book NHS SOS, says the future of the NHS could be decided on general election day 8 June.
The future of a publicly provided, free at the point of use NHS will be decided on June 8th #GE17
— Dr David Wrigley (@DavidGWrigley) April 18, 2017
14:10 People in England are suffering from mental health problems such as long-term stress, anxiety and depression due to housing pressures, reports the BBC.
A survey by housing charity Shelter and ComRes of over a thousand people found that among those who experienced housing worries in the past five years, 69% said their mental health was affected.
They also carried out telephone interviews with 20 inner-city GPs to find out the extent housing was impacting mental health, founding it was a major contributing factor.
London GP Dr Andrew Carr said: ‘With evictions on the rise in my area, I’ve seen people with acute anxiety or severe stress because they’re facing the threat of losing their home.’
12:20 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the Prime Minister out on the NHS crisis at PMQs today, tweets the Telegraph’s political editor. But Theresa May used the session to focus on Labour’s plans to increase borrowing to pay for services.
Jeremy Corbyn: NHS has been put into an all-year round crisis by this Govt. Why are millions not getting the care and dignity they deserve
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) April 19, 2017
11:05 Could frog slime hold the long-awaited cure for the flu? A fungoid frog that lives in forests of South West India has mucus containing a compound that kills influenza while leaving healthy tissue intact, reports the Independent.
Lead researcher Joshy Jacob, associate professor in microbiology at Emory University in Atlanta, said: ‘This peptide kills the viruses. It kind of blows them up. There’s no collateral damage.’
The scientists hope their discovery of the compound, which they have named urumin, will lead to the development new drugs to halt flu pandemics.
09:30 RCGP chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard has insisted she is an ‘enthusiastic’ GP partner herself, after having been quoted by a House of Lords committee as saying the model is not fit for the future.
She told Pulse: ‘The College has never said that partnership is “unfit for purpose”. We fully support the partnership model and believe that it is the bedrock of high quality family health care in the UK. It has been a trailblazer for innovation in general practice over decades, providing excellent care and services that our patients rely on, while also delivering excellent value for money to the wider NHS.
‘As an enthusiastic GP partner for 15 years, I see this first-hand at my own practice in Lichfield. One of the great strengths of general practice is that it adapts to the changing needs of our patients. In the current climate there is no one-size-fits-all approach and GP practices must be able to choose the best way of working, in our own interests and that of our local populations.’
Read Professor Stokes-Lampard’s full quote here (at the bottom of the letter)
