We all know that General practice is at the heart of NHS care, but everyday we're coming
under increasing pressure.
The NHS is one of the world's most cost effective health services thanks to general practice.
But we're juggling more and more patients, many with increasingly complex needs.
The need to invest in general practice has never felt more important for the long-term
sustainability of the NHS.
Fortunately the pressures we face are now recognised and improvements are underway.
The General Practice forward view is an unprecedented programme of investment to support practices
to build sustainable systems for both patients and practices.
The programme tackles five big areas in primary care.
So what will this mean for general practice in the future?
National funding increased in 2016 and will continue to rise until 2020, this represents
a 14% real term increase in investment in general practice services compared to 8% for
the rest of the NHS.
And this will take investment in general practice from 9.6 billion pounds a year to 12 billion
pounds a year.
By 2020 we aim to increase the general practice workforce by at least 10,000.
This will include 5,000 more whole time equivalent doctors and at least 5,000 members of the
wider workforce.
Practices have also welcomed the increased funds for practice manager development, and
to widen the roles of receptionists and care navigators.
For recruitment, there has been an increase in the number of medical school and GP training
places.
We have rolled out salary supplements for under doctored areas and post CCT fellowships
and expanded a major recruitment drive in the U.K. and internationally.
To try to support GP's to stay in general practice we are also launching flexible careers
schemes, like GP Career Plus, free career coaching for senior GP's and the GP Health
Service for mental health support.
We're also working to make general practice attractive again, with reforms to the 'Induction
and Refresher' and 'Retainer' schemes.
As far as workload is concerned it's clear that practices need support straight away
to help them cope, expanding the workforce will help but we need to reduce the avoidable
workload as well.
An important part of tackling workload is managing demand more effectively.
Part of this is about supporting people to look after their own health.
So as well as improving the 111 urgent care service, by adding more clinicians and bringing
it online, we've launched a national programme to help patients to help themselves.
This includes social prescribing, care navigation and minor ailment schemes in pharmacies.
We are also working on outside pressures by making changes to hospital contracts to reduce
the follow up requests sent to GP's There will also be a reduction in CQC inspections
for good and outstanding practices.
And simplifying GP payment and reporting requirements.
Investment in infrastructure remains a priority.
We're putting hundreds of millions of pounds into new projects to improve or extend facilities
for wider team working.
And with new technology we're already starting to transform how patients access their practice
and how GP's manage their workloads.
We will support much more widespread adoption of these online innovations including extra
funding for the uptake of patient online services and online consultations which will improve
access and reduce pressures on Practice time.
We are increasing capacity across general practice by helping practices to work together
to offer more urgent and routine appointments at evenings and weekends.
This will be part of a new joined up approach to planning, helping practice workload within
core opening hours and integrated with 111, out of hours and urgent care services.
The General Practice Development Programme is helping practices redesign the care they
deliver by implementing successful innovations that release time for care.
Initiatives such as enhanced self care, active signposting and collaborative working are
better for patients and better for practices.
In addition new training and coaching programmes are helping clinicians and managers drive
improvements in the service.
So that's just a snap shot of the General Practice Forward View in action.
We know there's a lot to be done to help practices today and transform them for a better more
manageable tomorrow.
We also know that even with the best plan our success depends on us all pulling together
because it is only by working together that we'll create a sustainable future for our
profession and for our patients.
As we look ahead the role of the generalist has never been more important.
Now is our chance to make things better and rediscover the joy in what we do and why we
do it.
General practice is the jewel in the crown of the NHS.
We need to keep it that way.