Lord Darzi must review GP underfunding, say GP leaders

The Doctors’ Association has written to Lord Darzi urging him to take GP underfunding and pressures into account during his rapid NHS review.

GPs need a government commitment to ‘significantly’ uplift general practice core funding, they argued, backed by a list of facts.

Last week, Professor Lord Ara Darzi was appointed by the health secretary to lead an ‘independent investigation’ into the ‘state of the NHS’, which will be published in September.

The findings of the investigation will feed into a new 10-year plan ‘to radically reform’ the NHS, for which patients and staff will be consulted ‘soon’.

The DAUK’s letter lays out ‘a number of facts about the GP crisis’ which Lord Darzi should consider in his investigation, and invited grassroots GPs to add their signature to it.

It said that GP practices ‘cannot continue to run on fumes’ and need a commitment from NHS England and the Government to uplift core funding and ‘continue to do so in line with inflation’.

The letter pointed to NHS England data regarding the declining GP numbers in the NHS since 2015, with a single full-time GP now being ‘responsible for an average of 2,292 patients’ and added that despite this, GP practices are offering ‘record numbers of appointments for their patients’.

It also highlighted RCGP and BMA data on GP unemployment, showing that 6 out of 10 job-seeking GPs have struggled to find a vacancy to apply for over the past year and that 84% of locum GPs cannot find work.

‘This makes no sense when we have patients desperate for appointments but no money for practices to pay for these doctors,’ the letter said.

The DAUK also mentioned practice closures, with over 1,000 shutting down since 2015 and that schemes aimed at reducing GP appointments such as Pharmacy first, the Additional Roles and Reimbursements Scheme (ARRS) ‘actually cost more money to run’.

It concluded: ‘All these factors have impacted the workforce morale and greatly compromised the standard and continuity of care.

‘Supporting general practice now, will in turn reduce the burden and cost on secondary care in the long run, as well as being an essential part of helping people feel well again.

‘However we really cannot continue to run on fumes. We need a commitment from NHSE and the government to significantly uplift core funding and continue to do so in line with inflation.

‘We ask that you take these facts into consideration whilst conducting your investigation.’

The DAUK has previously argued that the new Government should reallocate ARRS and Pharmacy First money to restore GP core funding.

The BMA’s GP committee has also urged the Government to ‘stop disinvestment’ in general practice and increase its proportion of NHS funding by 1% year on year.

Earlier this month, health secretary Wes Streeting has said he is ‘committed to reversing’ the underfunding of general practice, in one of his first announcements in his new role.

Labour’s election manifesto carried no promises of increased investment in general practice, but in his previous shadow health secretary role, Mr Streeting had claimed that GPs have ‘a lot to look forward to’ under a Labour Government.

There were also suggestions that primary care’s proportion of the NHS budget ‘ought to increase’ and Labour would seek to do this ‘over time’.