The government and NHS leaders are ignoring evidence on the importance of continuity of care between GPs and their patients – while general practice remains a profession in crisis, MPs warn today.

A new report on the future of general practice, published by the Health and Social Care Committee, says ministers and NHS England must acknowledge the crisis in general practice and urges them to set out what steps they are taking to protect patient safety. The committee says there must be national priority to require GP practices to report on continuity of care by 2024 because care based on a doctor-patient relationship is essential for patient safety and patient experience.

The MPs say there is evidence that higher continuity of care was linked to reduced use of emergency services, with one Norwegian study showing a clear association between continuity and ‘hard end points’ including reduced mortality and lower emergency hospital admissions. However, the report acknowledges continuity of care will be more difficult to achieve unless the workforce crisis is also addressed.

Health and Social Care Committee member Rachael Maskell said: “Our inquiry has heard time and again the benefits of continuity of care to a patient with evidence linking it to reduced mortality and emergency admissions. Yet that important relationship between a GP and their patients is in decline. We find it unacceptable that this, one of the defining standards of general practice, has been allowed to erode and our report today sets out a series of measures to reverse that decline. Seeing your GP should not be as random as booking an Uber with a driver you’re unlikely to see again.

“The wider picture shows general practice as a profession in crisis, with doctors demoralised and overworked, the numbers recruited not matching those heading for the door. A reluctance by government and NHS England to acknowledge this crisis cannot continue and ministers must set out how they intend to protect patient safety in the short term.”

The report also calls on the government and NHS England to re-implement personal lists in the GP contract from 2030 onwards; set out steps in the short term to protect patient safety, improve access and reduce GP workloads; and to work as a matter of urgency to stop a bidding war for the services of locums. When it comes to recruiting GPs, the committee said it is “disappointing” the government would not meet its target to recruit 6,000 additional GPs by 2024, leading to calls for the additional 1,000 training places each year.

The MPs said the decision to introduce an additional two-week wait target for GP appointments does not address the fundamental capacity problem causing poor GP access. They said the government should look to limit a GP’s list size of patients, which would reduce over five years as more GPs are recruited. They also say changes such as the creation of Primary Care Networks have failed to make any meaningful impact on the future sustainability of general practice. Regional variation in general practice means there are areas that are already under significant pressure due to high levels of deprivation, ill health and too few doctors. But these pressures are compounded by unfair funding mechanisms that fail to take account of deprivation experienced, add the MPs.

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said the report is a long overdue recognition that general practice is in crisis. He said the RCGP’s Our Fit for the Future campaign has already called on government to address the spiralling workload and workforce pressures in general practice, including a new recruitment and retention strategy that goes beyond the target of 6,000 GPs, which the Conservative party pledged in its election manifesto.

“GPs and our teams want to deliver safe, timely and high-quality personalised care for patients, but while workload escalates in terms of volume and complexity, numbers of fully-qualified, full-time equivalent GPs have fallen since 2015,” he said.

“We need to see urgent action taken, not just to further increase recruitment into NHS general practice, but to keep hard-working, experienced GPs in the profession longer, delivering patient care on the front line and not bogged down in unnecessary bureaucracy. The Committee’s report also acknowledges the importance of GPs and our teams building trusting relationships with patients and delivering continuity of care, something that evidence has shown improves patients’ health outcomes, and has benefits for the NHS. This is the type of care GPs want to give and the type of care many of our patients want, but amidst the current pressures facing general practice, is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver despite the best efforts of GP teams.”

Dr Farah Jameel, chair of the British Medical Association English GP committee, said: “This report highlights the crisis in general practice, and has many crucial recommendations which must be implemented as a matter of urgency. Continuity of care is what patients want, what keeps people well, and what reduces health costs. We know that patients benefit from continuity of care, with the quality, strength and consistency of their relationship with their family doctor having a significant impact on their health outcomes. Given that … today’s findings will have been overseen by the former chair of the Committee, Jeremy Hunt, we can only hope that he will make good on these recommendations in his new role as Chancellor, and we look forward to working with him and the wider Government to enable the vision he has set out.”