Practice managers, GPs and MPs came together at a Parliamentary event last week to launch a white paper that places a spotlight on the ‘stark’ workforce and funding crises facing general practice.
The report, produced by Management in Practice’s publisher Cogora, revealed that surgeries in England are suffering shortfalls in key roles such as GPs, practice managers and nurses at the same time as there being a shortage of jobs for GPs and challenges in hiring for other clinical jobs.
Professionals from across primary care joined 12 MPs to discuss the issues and what action needs to be taken to boost recruitment and retention, with a joint call for more funding as their core message.
Attendees included practice manager leaders from the Institute of General Practice Management (IGPM), representatives from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and GPs from the Rebuild General Practice campaign, who co-hosted the event with Cogora.
Also present were the chairs of RCGP and the BMA’s GP Committee and the Doctors Association UK .
Jaimie Kaffash, the report’s author, and editor-in chief of our sister publication Pulse said GPs and practices are stuck in a vicious cycle.
‘Rising GP unemployment alongside underfunded practices means that they are unable to recruit the vital workforce to meet growing patient demand. Fewer GPs and more unemployed GPs is leading to unmanageable workloads for GPs and a severe increase in the risk to patient safety.’
He added that when speaking to GPs, practice managers, nurses, pharmacists, and commissioners to gather information for the report, they spoke with once voice.
‘These professionals were united in this one thing… and that one thing is funding. Funding is what we need in general practice,’ he said.
Labour MP for Stroud and working GP Dr Simon Opher, who opened the event in Parliament, said: ‘I think we could safely say that general practice and the whole NHS is in some sort of crisis.
‘As a GP, I understand the workforce resourcing desperately needed within the profession. As the Government, we must place a priority focus on general practice as the backbone of our NHS.’
Rebuild General Practice representative Dr Rachel Warrington, a former GP partner from Bristol who now works as a locum in North Wales, told attendees the findings that there is a lack of funding and adequate surgery space to recruit GPs despite increasing patient demand ‘reflect our day-in and day-out experiences as GPs’.
‘We are urging the government to allocate fair, real-time funding to general practice and prioritise the retention of GPs.’
Kay Keane, a director at the IGPM, said they were delighted to support the white paper, and that its members ‘were instrumental in providing data and insight into the issues we have today’.
She added that the report provides evidence of a changing face of general practice, with additional staff members, extended skills and delivery of more complex services.
‘It is practice managers that enable these changes to happen and for too long the profession has been overlooked for the key role that it does,’ she told Management in Practice. ‘We thank the team behind the report for highlighting that practice managers are vital.’
However, Ms Keane agreed that in line with the report findings, practice managers ‘really struggle’ to recruit certain roles such as practice nurses.
‘We can’t compete with the funding that there is in hospitals. We can’t give Agenda for Change contracts, as much as GPs and employers would want to, we’re not paid for that,’ she explained.
RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: ‘The troubling findings of this report sadly come as little surprise, and tally with what the College has heard from members.
‘It is simply unacceptable that practices are unable to recruit the GPs they need when so many patients are crying out for our services.’
She urged the Government to ‘tackle the employment crisis in general practice head on’ and address ‘the chronic underfunding and poor workforce planning that have plagued general practice for decades’.
Cogora’s General Practice Workforce white paper can be accessed in full here.
