Much has been made in the media of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s recent speech where he promised GPs a ‘new deal’ to alleviate pressure on over-stretched services, through increased investment, reduction in bureaucracy, and the drafting in of more healthcare professionals to the areas most in need. The speech was a typically politicised mix of…

Are pharmacists the answer to easing practice workloads? Or can pharmacists ease practice workloads? One of the major news stories this week has been the launch of NHS England’s 10 point plan to address staff shortages in general practice. Along with incentivising GPs to postpone retirement, the plan includes piloting schemes to introduce new grades of support…

Jeremy Hunt announced on Thursday (15th January 2015) that every GP practice in the UK will receive a letter inviting them to bid for a slice of the £1bn funding made available by the chancellor for upgrading primary care facilities. The key purpose of this cash is to support PCT infrastructure, the provision of more…

Thousands of student doctors have received a letter from Dr Maureen Baker, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners this week, encouraging them to consider a GP career after graduation. The reason for this mid-December correspondence wasn’t concerned with Christmas wishes, though. The letter was sent as an attempt to address England’s ‘chronic shortage’…

With an election looming on the horizon, the NHS is once more top of the agenda. There are the ever present rumours of financial crisis, fundamental questions are being asked once again about what we want our health service to provide, and suggestions are being made. Labour health minister Lord Warren has suggested people pay…