#GPnews: ‘We need a reversal in the decline in funding for general practice’

15:00 New figures have revealed that A&E performance in England dropped to a new low in February for the second month in a row, the BBC reports. 

Hospitals are meant to see 95% of patients in four hours – however, just 87.8% were, new data from NHS England has revealed.

The figures represent a marginal drop on January’s waiting times, which were the worst since the target was introduced in 2004.

13:15 The GPC has published an action plan today in a bid to reduce GP workload and solve the recruitment crisis. 

As part of the plan, the GPC has called for there to be a maximum limit set out for the number of patients GPs can see in a day, with excess patients seen by ’locality hubs’. 

Read Pulse’s full coverage here

12:25 Elsewhere, Facebook has added a new feature to its Messenger app that allows users to pose questions relating to their health. 

Users will be able to message ‘HealthTap’ within the app and ask a question – and they will be able to choose either to receive answers to similar questions in HealthTap’s online database, or an answer from one of 100,000 physicians in HealthTap’s network, BuzzFeed reports. 

The app, which is only available in the US for now, is only an ‘educational free service’, Facebook insists and is ‘not a replacement for visiting a doctor’. 

11:10 Former Tory health minister Dr Dan Poulter has also been pictured on Twitter bringing coffee to junior doctors, who have reportedly been waiting outside the Department of Health HQ since yesterday – urging health secretary Jeremy Hunt to come out and re-negotiate the new contract.  

Thanks to @drdanpoulter for bringing us coffee this morning. New team ready to go.@doctor_oxford pic.twitter.com/BvsnJwjiEt

— Dagan Lonsdale (@DaganLonsdale) April 14, 2016

10:30 Former Conservative health minister Dr Dan Poulter has publicly said on Twitter that he does not support the Government’s imposition of the junior doctor contract. 

@VimalGokani no

— Dr Dan Poulter (@drdanpoulter) April 13, 2016

9:50 UK Chancellor George Osborne has travelled to Washington DC to warn international financial leaders they must invest in developing new antibiotics, reports the Daily Mail.

Mr Osborne will warn that the rise in antimicrobial resistance could, by 2050, mean 10m people dying from common infections, wiping $100 trillion off global GDP.

He will tell the International Monetary Fund (IMF): ‘My message here at the IMF meeting in Washington is that we need the world’s governments and industry leaders to work together in radical new ways.

’We have to dramatically shift incentives for pharmaceutical companies and others to create a long-term solution to this problem, with new rewards, funded globally, that support the development of new antibiotics and ensure access to antibiotics in the developing world.’

9:30 Our top story today is that a review of GP recruitment policies has concluded that medical schools should have their funding linked to the number of GPs they produce.

The study produces this fascinating table showing how many GPs each medical school produces:

Remember when @DHgovuk said they have half of medical graduates in GP! Please don’t laugh – here is the progress! pic.twitter.com/1azOy0XOaB

— Krishna Kasaraneni (@Dr_Kasaraneni) April 12, 2016

Still a long way to go, it seems.