The RCGP has launched a GP policy manifesto ahead of the general election in June, calling for the promised rescue package to be delivered, as well as longer training.
It also calls on the Government to deliver on its pledge for 5,000 extra GPs and for guaranteed status for EU healthcare staff in the UK.
It further wants more GP support staff, and long-term measures to reduce the cost to GPs of medical indemnty.
RCGP chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said the RGCP was launching its manifesto ‘ahead of those of the political parties to try to influence their campaigns and get the message across that this General Election cannot be a one ticket campaign about Brexit’.
She added: ‘Regardless of the result on 8 June, it is crucial that any future government delivers the investment and support our GPs so desperately need to provide the high quality care that all our patients need and deserve.
‘When general practice thrives, the NHS survives and we will be doing everything we can between now and 8 June to ensure that the collective voice of hardworking GPs and our patients is heard loud and clear by the political parties of all persuasions.’
The full list of RCGP-requested policies is:
• Delivery of the GP Forward View in England, including investment of an additional £2.4bn per year in general practice by 2020;
• At least 5,000 more full-time-equivalent GPs by 2020, with more medical students choosing general practice as a career and improved support to retain GPs already working in general practice;
• Guaranteed status for EU healthcare professionals already working in the UK – and for it to be made as easy as possible for doctors from the EU to move to and work in the UK;
• An extension of GP specialty training from three to four years to reflect the increasingly complex health needs of patients in primary care;
• Long-term measures to bring down the rising costs of medical indemnity insurance that GPs, unlike hospital doctors, must meet themselves; and
• The introduction of a national ‘return to practice’ scheme to recruit more general practice nurses, alongside increased numbers of pharmacists and mental health therapists in GP surgeries.
