Clear Law is backing a new scheme from NHS England, which is investing £10million in an attempt to boost the GP-workforce amid stark warnings of an expected rise in demand over the next five years.
The NHS said that, if action isn’t taken, over a million patients could be left with no family doctor as a result of rapidly shrinking numbers of GPs.
The scheme, funded with money taken from the £1billion infrastructure fund, announced by ministers last year in the autumn statement, will see several initiatives in collaboration with Health Education England (HEE), the BMA and RCGP. It will focus on the recruitment of newly-qualified doctors and encourage existing doctors to either delay or come out of retirement altogether.
After Sir Bruce Keogh voiced his concerns last week that the future of the NHS might not service the growing demands of an ageing population, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, GPC chairman, said this new funding had ‘the potential to be an important first step towards increasing GP numbers’.
Under the scheme, entrants to the industry will receive an additional year of training in their chosen branch of medicine, such as psychiatry, paediatrics and emergency medicine, or be offered help to acquire business and enterprise skills.
In addition, the money will also be invested in training centres for nurses and other primary-care staff to further develop their skills.
In a number of regions in the UK, including the North West and North East of England, the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber, just 60 per cent of GP training places are currently being filled. There are 356 fewer GPs than this time last year.
The UK government’s target is to train an extra 5,000 GPs by 2020, in addition to 10,000 extra primary and community health and care staff.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “Primary care is the bedrock of the NHS and the Five-Year Forward View makes clear that it will play an even greater role in the future.
“We need greater investment in GP services, extending to community nursing, pharmacy and eye-care services. This £10m will kick-start a range of initiatives to drive that forward so every community has GP services that best meets its health needs.”
The announcement comes as the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) launches a national campaign to recruit increasing numbers of medical students across the country to a career in general practice. The body warns that as many as 10,000 new family doctors could be required in the next five years, to care for an ageing and growing population, and has said that the campaign will include a video to demonstrate the varied role of GPs as well as regional roadshows, which will take place this week (commencing 26th January) across the country.
RCGP chairwoman Dr Maureen Baker, who has recently written to medical students encouraging them to consider a career in general practice, said there is a “media perception” that GPs have a less exciting job than those who work in other areas such as emergency medicine.
Dr Baker said: “This video – and the GPs who appear in it – show that nothing could be further from the truth.
“Being a GP is exciting, varied and challenging, as well as being the only role in the NHS that delivers care for the whole person over their lifetime.
“GPs are now performing procedures every day in our consultation rooms that a decade ago would automatically have been referred to hospital specialists.
“We hope the video will reach out to the medical students and trainee doctors who are considering the direction of their future careers and show them what a brilliant profession general practice really is.”