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Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard elected next RCGP chair

Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard has been elected chair of RCGP council and will succeed Professor Maureen Baker in the role from November 2016.

The Lichfield GP is currently the College’s honorary treasurer and head of academic primary care teaching at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Stokes-Lampard said she will continue the ‘vital work’ of campaigning for more resources for the profession.

She was elected over fellow candidates Dr Tim Ballard, Dr Sunil Gupta and Professor Martin Marshall.

Dr Stokes Lampard said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to be elected as chair of a college that has meant so much to me throughout my career, and will strive to continue the excellent work of Maureen Baker, and Clare Gerada before her, to be a voice for GPs across the country and ensure that our profession is strong for the future of the NHS and patient care.’

She said it was ‘an honour to have been entrusted with continuing this vital work’, which she said had included ‘securing’ the recent GP Forward View in England, as well as the ongoing campaigns for more funding in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She added: ‘I’d like to thank all council members who voted for me, and my fellow candidates for running such dignified and challenging campaigns and I look forward to working with each of them in some capacity in the future.’

Dr Stokes-Lampard was tipped as a dark horse candidate for the next RCGP chair in last year’s Pulse Power 50, and had annunced she would step down as treasurer in November 2016 to ‘pursue other college opportunities’.

Pulse Power 50 judges praised her for the ‘efficiency with which she juggles her clinical, political and academic roles’.