The new GPC chair is asking a question few GP leaders have dared to ask
Pulse editor Sofia Lind reflects on why Dr Clare Bannon believes GPs need a ‘plan B’ – and what that could mean for the future of general practice
Ahead of Dr Clare Bannon taking over the chair at GPC England yesterday, she sat down with our deputy news editor to outline her plans for her term.
She had previously been described to me by colleagues as someone who ‘plays a straight bat’ and ‘what you see is what you get’. This was notable in the interview, in which Dr Bannon was very straight-talking.
Among the revelations, I found her framing of the general practice ‘plan B’ the most fascinating. Her predecessor Dr Katie Bramall was known to not be keen on a hybrid model for general practice, and while Dr Bannon stressed that everyone wants to keep the NHS free, she was very pragmatic about what may need to happen if the GP contract becomes ‘unsustainable’ or – even – ‘if the NHS fails’.
Whether or not that scenario ever comes to pass, this is a significant shift in rhetoric.
But that doesn’t mean she’ll be backing away from collective action. Bannon said the action so far has not been strong enough and made it clear that she is prepared to escalate if the Government continues to ignore the profession. Most eye-catching was her suggestion that online consultations could become part of that escalation, alongside wider safe-working measures. Exactly how that could happen without practices risking breach of contract remains an important unanswered question.
On the contract itself, Dr Bannon also struck a different note. Just a month ago, Dr Bramall told Pulse LIVE Birmingham that wholesale reform of GMS may already be off the table because it was a Wes Streeting policy – and he is no longer the health secretary. But Dr Bannon appeared less interested in wholesale contractual reform anyway. Contract reform without a significant uplift in core funding, she argued, will not solve the underlying problems.
She also had some strong opinions on neighbourhood health. As a GP partner herself, Dr Bannon stated that she viewed protecting the partnership model as fundamental; arguing that it is precisely because practices are independent that general practice remains the NHS’s most efficient sector. She described her vision for GPs to shape neighbourhood providers through federations and PCNs, rather than being absorbed into hospital-led organisations.
To that effect, she said the GPC will need to give clearer guidance to the profession and take the lead – and her success on that measure may well define her leadership term.
But – as a contractor, and flanked by an executive that will be made up entirely of partners – she will also be judged on how effectively she represents the profession as a whole.
Whether her more direct style leads to a reset with Government remains to be seen. With a relatively new Government and a new GPC chair, Dr Bannon stressed that there is an opportunity to rebuild relations.
But if that doesn’t work out as hoped, it looks like GPs may be asked to take more radical action than opting out of data sharing.
Sofia Lind is editor of Pulse. Find her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn
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