Exclusive GP charity the Cameron Fund has seen a 73% increase in requests for financial assistance compared with last year, Pulse has learned.
The Cameron Fund provides support to GPs, GP trainees and former GPs facing financial hardship, and to their families, contributing towards living expenses, professional subscriptions, retraining costs, minor property repairs and other essential expenditures.
It normally deals with around 15-20 cases per year, but this year it has provided support for 26 GPs, plus an increase in enquiries around financial assistance.
The fund said it was seeing an increase in applications from younger GPs and GP trainees, as well as those suffering domestic abuse.
The chair of the fund told Pulse that Covid was a major driver of the increases, including the effect of long Covid, plus the cost-of-living crisis.
The Cameron Fund said:
- It had considered 26 new cases to date this year – 12 of which were trainees – compared with 15 last year and 20 in 2020 for the nine months between January and September;
- It will be reviewing 13 cases at its next meeting in November, a stark increase from the average of five to six cases the organisation has reviewed at each meeting over the last two years.
- During the first nine months of 2022, it saw a 29% increase in enquiries about financial assistance compared with the same period in 2021 – up from 56 to 72.
- Enquiries were slightly higher at 81 in 2020, it said, but fewer completed applications were received.
Chair of the Cameron Fund and Kent GP Dr Gary Calver said: ‘The Cameron Fund in common with other medical charities has seen an increase in applications in 2022. It appears the cause is the ongoing effects of the pandemic affecting our colleagues in many ways.
‘There are a number of colleagues seriously affected by long Covid with severe physical health problems. We have also noted the societal effects of Covid with an increase in relationship breakdowns. It is difficult to raise a family as a single parent, particularly as a trainee or early in a GP’s career.’
The Cameron Fund’s autumn newsletter said that the ‘current fuel crisis and inflation will affect those
already struggling and place increasing pressure’ on the charity.
And Dr Calver added that the charity’s ‘funding streams have been affected particularly by a decrease in investment income’ but that it is ‘still able to support colleagues’.
It comes as six in ten UK medical students are being forced to cut spending on essentials such as food and heating, according to a recent BMA survey.
Meanwhile, Pulse revealed in 2020 that locum GPs were forced to claim state benefits after struggles to find work during the pandemic.
Pulse also revealed that the Cameron Fund had seen requests for financial support rise by more than 50% in 2020 compared with the previous year.
At the time, the charity told Pulse that it may face difficulties itself after a drop in income due to the pandemic.
