GPC campaign urges voters to make GP crisis the doorstep election issue

The BMA’s GP Committee has launched a new patient-facing campaign ahead of the general election, titled ‘GPs Are On Your Side’.

The GPC has produced leaflets that voters can put in their window during the run-up to the election and it is urging patients to make general practice the doorstep election topic.

Highlighting that GP practices get just £107.57 per year for each patient – ‘less than the cost of an annual TV licence’ – it argues that ‘general practice deserves a bigger slice of NHS funding so we can train and hire more GPs, deliver the services you require and make it easier for you and your loved ones to get appointments to see your GP and practice team’.

The GPC campaign aims to reassure patients that ‘GPs want the same things that you do’ – for ‘nobody’ to ‘struggle to see their family doctor’.

‘General practice should be as it once was – a familiar family doctor, offering continuity of care in a surgery full of friendly familiar faces within a safe building where you knew you would get the care you needed,’ the GPC said.

It goes on to advise patients on how to ‘support your family doctor’, including by talking ‘to any election candidate you come across’.

‘When candidates from the political parties come knocking on your door, ask them what they will do to save general practice. What will they do so you can see a GP in a modern local surgery?’ it said.

Patients could also join their local patient participation group (PPG), in order to support the practice and influence the way they deliver local services, the campaign material suggests.

The GPC said: ‘We value our patients. We know that most patients value us too, especially when they need us regularly. You know we can deal with most of your health problems, keep you out of hospital, and have your best interests at heart. The problem is with the mismanagement of the NHS.’

GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer had previously outlined plans to force general practice to become the doorstep topic via collective action, however those plans have had to be tweaked due to the summer election.

However, the early election has not changed plans for GPs to go ahead with collective action from 1 August, pending the result of a ballot GP partners which will open on Monday 17 June and close on Monday 29 July.

GPCE is also working on an election manifesto for general practice, which is expected to include demands for ‘at least a 15% share’ of the NHS budget for out-of-hospital care; and an ambition towards’ a limit on patient numbers per GP.