Dr Clare Gerada only took over as RCGP chair in November 2010, but she’s already made such an impression that our panel placed her comfortably on top as the most influential GP in the UK.

Going toe to toe with a health secretary intent on driving through perhaps the most controversial changes to the NHS since its birth would be a hard enough job at the best of times.

Dr Hamish Meldrum led the BMA into its first Special Representative Meeting since 1992 – and emerged with his position and reputation intact.

Professor Steve Field has been so successful in establishing himself at the top of general practice that our panel placed him fourth even though voting took place before he was appointed to lead the Government’s health bill ‘listening exercise’.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul topped last year’s list of up-and-coming GPs, and there is little doubt his time has now arrived. Tipped as a future GPC chair, Dr Nagpaul has been in the thick of the often fraught talks with the Government as the GPC’s lead negotiator on commissioning.

GPC deputy chair Dr Richard Vautrey is a Yorkshireman with a droll, understated delivery and an unassuming but effective style of leadership. He has been at the forefront recently as lead negotiator on wide-ranging changes to the QOF.

Dr Michael Dixon is one of general practice’s best-known figures, chair of the NHS Alliance since 1998 and one of the profession’s strongest advocates of complementary medicine and holistic healthcare.

One of our panel described Dr Sarah Wollaston – a practising GP until her election last year as Conservative MP for Totnes in Devon – as ‘my new hero’.

When Dr Michelle Drage lost her place as a GP negotiator in 2008, there were some who felt her days as one of the profession’s most influential figures could be at an end. Instead, her standing is now higher than ever.

Dr Iona Heath ‘writes beautifully’, according to one of our panel, and it is for the power of her words that she makes our list, albeit a little lower than last year.

Never before have reforms of the NHS been so sweeping – and never before have they been so closely associated with just one man.