This week, Wes Streeting – defending Labour’s rise in National Insurance contributions and seeking to fend off the surging Reform party – announced an extra £102 million to improve primary care. The money, the Health Secretary explained, would be given to a thousand surgeries that were prevented from taking on new patients by not having the building space to see them in. General Practice has collapsed. But will Streeting’s funds really help fix it?
Many readers will be able to recall the GPs of their youths, doctors who knew them and knew their parents. Asking for a home visit was a serious step, not to be done without good reason, but to get an appointment at the surgery was routine, and the expectation was that – holidays and staff sickness allowing – you would see a familiar face.
The principle of continuity of care that made General Practice rewarding has been demolished
These gatekeepers of the NHS deserved their high reputation.
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