College announces new President

Dr Richard Vautrey has been elected as the next President of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He will take over the post from Dame Clare Gerada, whose two-year term will come to an end in November.

Dr Vautrey has been a GP partner in a training practice in Leeds for nearly 30 years and has worked as a GP in urban and rural settings in Nigeria. His previous leadership roles include BMA GP committee chair in England and GPC UK, and he has been a member of the GPC negotiating and executive team from 2004.

A graduate of Manchester University, he completed his GP training in Rochdale and Manchester, obtaining MRCGP in 1994. He has been a member of the College ever since. He has 13 years of experience as a member of RCGP Council, being a GPC observer between 2005-10, a nationally elected member from 2010-17 and again since 2022. He attends Yorkshire Faculty meetings and has recently been appointed to the College’s Patient and Carers Participation Group.

The RCGP President is the ceremonial head of the College. Unlike the other Medical Royal Colleges, it is the Chair of Council who provides the political and professional leadership of the College. The current RCGP Chair of Council is Professor Kamila Hawthorne.

Dr Vautrey stood against six other candidates for the role, which is voted for by the College membership. His term of office will run from November 2023 until November 2025.

Election results for six Nationally Elected Council Member seats on RCGP UK Council have also been announced. The successful candidates are (in alphabetical order):

• Azza Elghonaimy
• Aneez Esmail
• Chaand Nagpaul
• Heather Ryan
• Selvaseelan Selvarajah
• Emma Wong

Thirteen candidates stood for election. The successful candidates will begin their three-year terms of office from the College's UK Council meeting in November 2023.

The elections were conducted officially and independently by Civica Election Services.

RCGP Interim Chief Operating Officer and College Returning Officer Mark Thomas said: “Congratulations to Richard and to all our new nationally elected members - and thank you to everyone who put themselves forward for election.

"At a time when GPs are facing enormous workload pressures amid severe workforce shortages, the need for strong College representation has arguably never been more important to our grassroots membership.

“We look forward to working with our new President and new Council members to improve the working lives of our members and the care they deliver to their patients, now and in the future.”

Further information

RCGP Press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editor

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.