Pulse Checker: Boris leads way on face-to-face working and Jeremy hunts for a scapegoat

Face-to-face working takes bottle, Johnson tells GPs

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told GPs they should have been conducting ‘face-to-face work events’ throughout the pandemic.

Speaking to Pulse Checker, Mr Johnson once again criticised GPs for their lack of in-person appointments, and pointed out he and his staff had led the way in face-to-face working over the past two years. 

‘GPs conducted barely 180 million face-to-face appointments last year, but my department has shown what can be achieved with a can-do spirit – and cans of spirit for that matter,’ he bumbled. 

‘We could never have developed world-beating things like “eat out to help out” or our multibillion-pound Test and Trace had we not persisted with face-to-face work events, rules or no rules. 

‘We often “worked” until late in the evening,’ he waffled. ‘We even had to stop drinking at times. If GPs show the same dedication, they could see even more patients – especially if the surgery has
a nice garden and a decent fridge.’

We must find out who is to blame for GP workforce crisis, says Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary from 2012 to 2018, has vowed to determine who is behind the falling numbers of GPs and junior doctors, and hold them to account. 

Now Health Select Committee chair, he was speaking at the launch of his report into failings in NHS staffing levels, which Pulse Checker understands will focus on the years 2010-2012 and 2018-2022. 

Mr Hunt has become increasingly critical about recruitment and retention since he left the Department of Health, citing ‘grave mistakes’ that were made only before and after his time in office.

‘We suspect the reason we have so few doctors is errors made in 2010-2012 and 2018-2022,’ he told Pulse Checker. ‘This includes the Lansley reforms and Matt Hancock’s obsession with apps.

‘However, there is little evidence the imposed GP contract, the war with junior doctors, funding cuts, the pointless move to seven-day working or falling workforce numbers between 2012 and 2018 had anything to do with the state we’re in.’