Upcoming 10-year plan will be positive for GPs, suggests RCGP

The Government’s much-anticipated 10-year plan for health is likely to be positive for general practice, the RCGP has suggested.

In an update to members last week, college chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said she met with NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey to discuss the 10-year plan, as well as GP retention and the long-term workforce strategy.

Despite the current lack of detail on the plan, which the Government committed to publish in ‘spring 2025’, Professor Hawthorne said she was ‘assured that Sir Jim believes a lot of what we would like to see is likely to be included’.

She also said the NHSE chief executive was ‘reassuring on retention’, indicating that messaging around the importance of retaining GPs ‘has landed’.

The RCGP has previously demanded a national GP retention strategy with ringfenced funding, and has repeatedly called on the Government to invest at least £2bn in improve GP infrastructure.

Its submission to the Government’s consultation on the 10-year plan in December recommended that the health secretary report annually to Parliament ‘on the proportion of NHS spending in general practice and primary care, as is currently required for mental health spending’.

Professor Hawthorne also said she outlined to NHS England the college’s ‘vision for neighbourhood working’, which she has previously said should include ‘co-location of services’, whereby GP practices sit alongside the wider primary care teams in neighbourhood hubs.

Her update to GPs continued: ‘We’ve still not been able to see any detail of the [10-year] plan as yet but I was reassured that Sir Jim believes a lot of what we would like to see is likely to be included. I hope this remains the case, as I understand there are further iterations of the Plan continuing and it all sounds very fluid.

‘I’ve made the point that it is vital they seek a representative perspective of those at the ground level who will be tasked with delivering the plan and its ambitions. I’ll continue to advocate for the voice of general practice.

‘Sir Jim was also reassuring on retention – it appears the message has landed that retaining GPs is as important as training and recruiting them.’

Pulse has approached NHS England for comment.

As well as the upcoming 10-year plan, the health secretary has also committed to a ‘refreshed’ NHS workforce plan this summer, which will have a ‘laser-focus’ on boosting GP numbers.

The original plan, published in 2023, aimed to increase GP training places by 50% to 6,000 by 2031.

But the RCGP has repeatedly pointed out that the plan would result in only a 4% increase in the number of fully-qualified GPs by 2037, compared to a 49% growth in hospital consultants. The Government recognised this disparity when announcing its intention to update the long-term workforce plan.