TV dispatch: joining the pre-election debate

When I started my career as a GP 20 years ago, after leaving an unremarkable surgical training stint, I did not expect to spend so much of my time defending my chosen profession.

I did not expect choosing a career to provide healthcare to people close to their homes to result in so much systematic and relentless criticism. Time and again I have been called upon to defend the role of GPs in the NHS. It’s exhausting – but I persist because I know the value of what we do in my PCN and practice.

It was in that spirit that, when I saw an advert on X/Twitter to participate in a debate on the NHS crisis on Channel 4, I signed up to defend us once again and to protect what professional dignity I had left. To try and help people understand more about General Practice and the issues we face.

The proposed debate was to involve health spokespeople from the main political parties so I put forward that I would ask Labour if it would guarantee to make funding available to primary and community care as, to my mind, this is the road to salvation for the NHS.

I mentioned that we were not big shiny hospitals that politicians can pose in front of, we were not the ‘sexy’ arm of the NHS about which American TV dramas are made, but with an aging population, not investing in primary and community care is the quickest way to see the NHS fail.

To my surprise a nice producer phoned the next day and three days later I found myself at the Riverside Studios, London, armed with a cue card, watching Krishnan Guru-Murthy getting his nose powdered and sitting in a large white sofa, wondering if I had just walked into an episode of Black Mirror.

We were then asked to watch the Dispatches documentary Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis on the state of the emergency departments. It was harrowing viewing, even for me, who has witnessed these scenes first hand.

It won’t come as a surprise to you that the politicians chose not to make an appearance. The documentary was indefensible and every one of the political classes who is involved in this current situation could surely only hang their head in shame.

So, instead of the politicians there was a hastily assembled panel of experts and studio audience of around 50 and Krish (as we like to call him in the biz). My question was meant to be for a politician so I decided to go with the flow and defend primary care as best I could without swearing on national TV.

Then something very strange happened, nobody said anything remotely critical towards primary care. I started to wonder if I really was in an alternate reality.

The expert panel all agreed that this was not the fault of primary care but rather a systemic failure after years of underfunding and poor planning for an aging population.

They acknowledged that the staff in the NHS were working under incredible pressure and this was leading to avoidable and devastating mistakes.

The GPs were even asked what was needed to make things better for us all. I sagely stated that the proper funding needs to be put into the core contract over a longer time period to allow for us to stabilise our finances and then create a workforce plan. We cannot commit to employing extra staff if we can’t be sure we’ll have the funding to keep paying them.

The weirdest thing about the debate was that it was fair. From the heart-breaking patient stories to the NHS workers, we were given fair representation.

One very quick hour later it was all done we were dispersed and off I went wondering what others would make of it all.

I am not sure how many people will have watched the debate or what impact it will have, but for me, discussing the issues facing GPs, been heard and not heckled and even agreed with, felt a very good kind of surreal and I felt something I had not felt for a long time as a GP…..hope.

Now I hope that whoever forms the next Government can pay heed and see the true value of community and primary care and general practice and work with us to make things better for patients and staff.

To watch the debate click here.

Dr Sian Stanley is clinical director of Stort Valley and Villages PCN, East of England CD Representative, NHS Confederation and a GP partner in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. Read more of her articles here.