College responds to Darzi Report

College Chair Kamila Hawthorne responds to Lord Darzi’s independent investigation of the National Health Service in England. 

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “General practice is the first port of call for the vast majority of patients in the NHS – and when it is properly resourced, it alleviates pressures right across the health service. It makes absolute sense to shift resources into primary care, where patients want to be cared for and where delivering care is most cost effective, and it’s encouraging to see this made clear in Lord Darzi’s report.  

“The report makes for stark reading but it echoes much of what the College has been warning about, and what our members are telling us - GPs and our teams are working under immense pressure after years of under-investment and poor workforce planning, and our patients, particularly our most vulnerable patients, are bearing the brunt.   

“Our patients are living longer, and as they do, they are living with more long term conditions. GPs are highly-skilled at managing this care, and we share our patients’ frustrations when they struggle to access the care they need – but workload in general practice has escalated, both in terms of volume and complexity, but we have fewer qualified full-time equivalent GPs than we did five years ago.  

“Lord Darzi acknowledges that primary care is consistently delivering more care, with a shrinking proportion of the NHS budget. This must be rectified. 

“Recognising the problems is a good first step. We now look forward to seeing how the recommendations in this report will be put into practice, and are keen to work with the government to make their vision to shift more resources into the community a reality. General practice is under enormous pressure, but with the right investment and initiatives – including to recruit and retain more GPs - we can turn things around, allowing GPs to deliver the safe, timely and appropriate care our patients need and that we are trained to, and want to, provide.” 

Further information

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

Notes to editors

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.