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#GPnews: NHS bosses are ‘most GP-friendly’ ever, says NHS England lead

16:00 GPC chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul delivering his speech at the BMA’s Annual Representatives Meeting this afternoon, arguing that GPs’ current workload is ‘not safe’. 

Read Dr Nagpaul’s full speech here



14:45 NHS England’s director of general practice has hailed current NHS bosses as ‘most GP-friendly’ ever.

Speaking today at a King’s Fund event about how the NHS can improve quality and save money at the same time, Dr Arvind Madan, who is also a GP at the Hurley Group of practices in London, described the GP Forward View that was published in April as ‘a real vote of confidence’ in the profession.

Arguing that there had been ‘a change of tone’ from NHS England about ‘the environment in which we are asking general practices to operate’, he added: ‘It has moved from denial, to acknowledgement, to action. And actually I think it is possibly, one could argue, the most general practice-friendly leadership team the NHS has seen.’

14:05  Elsewhere this afternoon, the Royal College of Nursing has said that patients are being treated in store rooms amid rising pressure on hospitals. 

Speaking yesterday at the RCN annual conference, the college’s chief executive Janet Davies said some elderly patients are also being moved around in the middle of the night, while ambulances are being forced to queue outside A&E departments, ITV News reports

Davies said: ‘Having once been the preserve of the worst weeks of winter, overwhelming pressure and major incidents have sadly become the new normal in our hospitals. Every ambulance kept waiting outside A&E can mean someone in need waiting for help.

‘Every patient kept for hours on a trolley in A&E because there are no ward beds free, lengthens that queue to get through the door.’

12:15  New research has revealed that drugs used to treat diabetes may also be effective in treating Alzheimer’s disease, the Mail Online  reports.

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen found that the two conditions are strongly linked, raising the possibility of shared drug responses.  

They also discovered that dementia-related effects in the brain can lead to changes in the body’s handling of glucose, and ultimately to diabetes – prompting the researchers to conclude that the findings may lead to a ‘new therapeutic angle’ in the race to find an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s. 

10:55 Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the GPC chair, is set to deliver an emotive speech this afternoon to the BMA’s Annual Representatives Meeting – the trade union’s policy-making body.

He is set to cite figures reported by Pulse stating that 201 surgeries have closed this year. However, a note of caution – these figures actually referred to the reduction in the number of practices. The majority of this reduction would be put down to mergers.

But Dr Nagpaul’s point is clear – that the ’pressures on general practice have sunk to a new low’.

Read our story on his speech here.

Read his full speech here.

9:50  This morning we are leading on our exclusive story, which reveals that general practice could end up managing as many as 50% of type 1 diabetes patients under new plans drawn up by a CCG. 

The implementation of the plans could see many patients subsequently discharged from specialist management. 

Chair of the GPC’s clinical and prescribing subcommittee Dr Andrew Green told Pulse: ‘This is quite clearly a transfer of work into general practices and the absence of any mention of funding is simply flabbergasting.’

‘This proposal, and in particular the training requirements mentioned, go clearly beyond essential services and if adequate funds are not provided GPs should use the resources available from the BMA to ensure that their practices and patients are not damaged by this transfer of work.’

Read Pulse’s full story here