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Professor Dame Clare Gerada elected RCGP president

Professor Dame Clare Gerada elected RCGP president

Professor Dame Clare Gerada has been named as the next president of the RCGP.

Prof Gerada, who served as the RCGP’s chair between 2010 and 2013, ran unopposed with 84% of voters agreeing to her appointment.

She will take over the presidency from Professor Amanda Howe when her two-year term comes to an end in November.

Commenting on her new role, Professor Gerada tweeted: ‘Honoured to be part of the RCGP team again.

‘From an immigrant background (where my father was so terrified of RCGP that he never ever shortlisted someone with MRCGP as a partner) to now its President.

‘Going forward, I pledge to support my profession in every way I can.’

Professor Gerada was first elected to the RCGP Council in 1998 and is its longest serving member.

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She becomes the first woman for nearly 70 years, and only the second in the College’s history, to hold the positions of both chair and president.

She is also a member of the BMA Council, co-chair of the NHS Assembly and is founder and medical director of NHS Practitioner Health, which provides mental health support to GPs.

Professor Gerada is a partner in the Hurley Group and a practising GP in South London.

She is also chair of the charity Doctors in Distress and has recently written a book, Beneath the White Coat, Doctors, their Minds and Mental Illness, with all proceeds going to the charity.

The College has also announced that Dr Susi Caesar, Dr Tajvinder Grewal, Professor Mike Holmes, Dr Uwa Ima-Edomwonyi, Dr Mohana Ratnapalan and Dr Victoria Tzortziou Brown have become nationally-elected elected RCGP Council members.

The six new members will begin their three-year terms of office in November.

Chief operating officer and College returning officer Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick said: ‘Congratulations to Clare who has a long history with the College.

‘We look forward to working with her more closely once again. Congratulations also to our new council members and thank you to everybody who put themselves forward.’


          

READERS' COMMENTS [12]

Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles

Douglas Price 2 August, 2021 4:14 pm

congratulations to her, high profile and well respected GP suitable for position. Shame RCGP couldn’t/wouldn’t put forward another candidate even if just for appearance sake.
Must say I was disappointed to see her slinging mud on social media against hospital colleagues recently, blaming them for workload increases. And yet at the same time her econsult company (which now sponsors rcgp conference, and to which even our chair is linked via the hurley group) is helping to break the backs of many GPs.

Chris Dixon 2 August, 2021 4:38 pm

This makes me sad and anxious about the future. Expect to get fully flamed and shouted at for this but it does.
Going to click refresh on my pension calculator to see if I can retire …

… computer says no , sigh

terry sullivan 2 August, 2021 7:45 pm

govt candidate?

Clare Gerada 2 August, 2021 7:48 pm

Why are you sad, Chris?
Let me know why and I will try and make you happy.
I’ve worked in general practice since 1991.
I still do. And I understand the pressures were under
I don’t know why so many GPs who post on pulse is like me so much.
I want to help as I don’t like our profession being so split.
So explain and let me see if I can help
C

Patrufini Duffy 2 August, 2021 8:24 pm

Most GPs don’t know who Amanda Howe is. I would even hazard a guess of more than 95%. That is ok – but, for such an integral, critical and battered profession that is concerning. It sees no attachment to anything, and distrusts it’s senior colleagues, who are set within the political hierarchy and almost too bland and scared themselves to speak the black and white. Too much grey, too much conversation and discussion. It is obvious what is going on in the UK health system, and now we’re living with a collateral cover up of the last 2 years, and more. And therein lies the problem of leadership, meaning and purpose. We have learnt from Hunt, Hancock, Madan, Kanani and Waller that sterile, instructive and intimidating approaches serve little to an intelligent group of humanitarians and scientists, mere pointless puppeteering that wears thin, and treads a fine line, almost to embarrassment. That damage is done. People have moved on and we hope are wiser. Those supposed leaders merely retreated to the hillside, it’s all silence and distancing from their camp, the support, sympathy and empowerment pre-winter is zero, just covert sequential buggery. Akin to leaving your soldiers to walk home themselves, into another storm, but instead giving arms to the enemy to shoot you in the foot. It is now or never, I would like to stay optimistic but, there seems to be too much candy floss, and too little honesty, clarity and guts in modern medicine that has made General Practice indefinable and lost on its course to aimless, commercial and dictated upon practice, cluttered with evidence-lacking schemes and a debilitating fear culture that seems impervious to change or time. We know who’s making profit from all this. That is inevitable and the cake is juicy and up for grabs. But, General Practice is a gift, there are no perks to the job – GPs wait in line like all others at A/E and eat the same rotten sandwiches and stale coffee. **I wish CG the best – if she notices she is now central to the rCGp. Deconstruct to reconstruct. Get rid of old structures and old thinking, old threats, and old intimidation – it is not working, few are listening and that is the ultimate disease of the profession and of healthy progress.

John Graham Munro 2 August, 2021 9:20 pm

Clare—–let me help you clarify Chris Dixon’s despair——-if you look back over my previous comments you will find they’re more direct

Slobber Dog 2 August, 2021 9:46 pm

Maybe with good leadership the college can become more relevant to general practice and less a subject of ridicule ?

Dave Haddock 3 August, 2021 7:24 am

Ghastly parasitic organisation that owns a significant share of the blame for where GP is now.

Membership is optional guys, these people are not your friends.

Thomas Robinson 3 August, 2021 8:53 am

With regard to faith in the college, I am an evangelical atheist, whereas almost all my colleagues were agnostic. A very few were true believers, and right pains in the arse.
Hospital doctors glaze over and head to the bar, when the subject comes up
Patients, are believers, even when you point out the harm it does them personally.
Politicians, can’t believe their luck.

The college believes patients should be able to consult an unlimited number of times, about an unlimited number of issues, I always thought they were silly.

David jenkins 3 August, 2021 1:08 pm

if “the college” really wishes to be regarded as a serious entity, it could start by avoiding populist practices. like making jamie oliver – a chef for god’s sake – an honorary fellow.

i have been a gp since august 1977. i had to take early retirement (on medical grounds) in 2007, after i had a dvt in my right arm, and a Hb of only 5 !

yet i’m still working part time at the age of 71, still with my dvt, and now only one lung capacity !

yet i can’t put MRCGP after my name unless i take an exam – which i didn’t have time to do when i was running my single handed, rural, dispensing, practice.

if they got on with the job, instead of snuggling up to politicians (we all know what agendas they have), then GP land would be a much nicer place to work, and recruitment would surely improve.

Helen Crawley 4 August, 2021 11:36 am

Hi

The RCGP Later Careers and Retired members group is aware that many GPs, especially older GPs and IMG, have not had an opportunity to take membership exams.

A new process has been established “membership for all”. See below, hope this helps!

https://www.rcgp.org.uk/about-us/membership/membership-for-all.aspx

From May 2021, the RCGP is changing the criteria for membership for established GPs.
Membership for all means any GPs who have been on the GMC GP register for a minimum of five years and have completed at least one revalidation cycle (or completed CEGPR) will now be eligible to apply for membership via a new, inclusive route.
The Membership for all route will ensure more GPs are able to benefit from college membership and representation.
It is the latest development in the College’s ongoing work to become a more inclusive membership body, open to and supporting GPs at all stages of their careers, right across the profession.
The need to expand the opportunity for membership to all practising GPs was supported by RCGP Council in November 2020.
This new route to membership does not require any additional form of assessment.

Dave Haddock 4 August, 2021 3:12 pm

“From May 2021, the RCGP is changing the criteria for membership for established GPs . . .”

Translation

We are short of money, and unless we can persuade a bunch of you to give us some of yours we might be forced to disembark from the gravy train and work for a living . . .