Millions of patients being seen both in person and remotely, says RCGP

The Royal College of GPs has responded to comments made by an NHS official at the Cheltenham Science Festival regarding face to face GP appointments.

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The College has always said that moving out of the pandemic, patients should be able to access general practice care and services in a variety of ways to meet their needs and preferences. In person consulting is and will remain core to general practice, and the majority of consultations are being delivered in this way - but good, safe and appropriate care can also be delivered remotely, and we know many patients find this way of accessing care convenient and effective.

“GPs and our teams are consistently making more consultations every month than in the same month before the pandemic. More than 25m patient consultations were delivered in general practice in April with over 45% being delivered on the same day they were booked and 63% made in person.”

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 52,000 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.