Although he missed out on being elected RCGP president this year, Dr Michael Dixon has continued to stand up for the future of the profession.
Last December, he warned the Government would fail in its ambition to make half of medical students choose general practice by 2016 unless it took radical measures, such as ring-fencing funding and revolutionising medical school training
Last October he called for on ministers to earmark 10% of NHS funding for general practice, up from the estimated 7.5% share it gets now.
Dr Dixon cites the growth in support for social prescribing in primary care as a particular win this year. ‘We are seeing it mentioned and celebrated on the national stage after years, when those of us who advocated it were regarded as bonkers,’ he says.
This coming year, Dr Dixon intends to keep working his impressive contacts book as the long-time chair of the NHS Alliance and the College of Medicine.
He says: ‘I am pressing the case for recurrent funding for extra people in general practice and changing things so that young doctors want to become GPs and older GPs find their role more fulfilling.’
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