A few thoughts on the government’s GP rescue plan announced today….firstly they are right to address crisis in this sector. Some good ideas including a new NHS covenant modeled on the military and more transparency about performance.
BUT, as someone who tried & failed to get 5000 more GPs into the system, I don’t think this package will turn the tide. We got 000s more graduates into GP surgeries, but we didn't make progress because experienced GPs were retiring/going part time faster than new trainees arrived
The lesson? This is a burnt-out workforce running on empty because of a massive mismatch between supply & demand. The only thing that will convince them not to continue retiring or opting for part-time hours in droves is a clear plan to end the unsustainable pressure they face.
That means in the short-term a big recruitment drive: incentives to persuade retired GPs who stepped up temporarily during the pandemic to extend their service; relaxation of immigration rules on overseas medics…
…incentives to move here including waiving bureaucracy for people moving from countries with good medical training e.g. Canada/Australia, and reform of pension disincentives which drive people into early retirement.
But sticking plaster after sticking plaster will no longer cut it. Unless we fix workforce planning in the NHS for the long term, the future will be bleak and the number of face to face GP appointments will go down not up.
That means most of all overhauling broken workforce planning with an independent system - modeled on something like the OBR - to ensure transparent, public projection are made about the number of clinicians we should be training in every specialty.
If we continue to leave that process to back-room haggling between Treasury and DH ministers in spending reviews, it will never get the focus it needs - and the crisis will just get worse.
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