GP leaders want to make the job “manageable, stimulating and fulfilling once again,” one of the profession’s most prominent doctors has stated.

Speaking on the 70th anniversary of the Royal College of GPs, its outgoing chair Professor Martin Marshall told how its role had changed in the last few years – as the workload “crisis” took its toll.

Professor Marshall became the college’s chair three years ago, finding himself in the role as the pandemic hit and, in its wake, practices faced unprecedented pressures and levels of criticism. Speaking to the college’s annual meeting, he said: “COVID was a massive challenge but we know pandemics pass.

“The bigger challenge for all of us has been the workload crisis in general practice, a crisis that has been building for over a decade and which is to a large part a consequence simply of rising need and demand for general practice services and inadequate investment in those services. This is a crisis which is clearly impacting on patients directly and on the mental and physical health of GPs and our teams. It is a crisis that has reoriented the main role of the College from pushing for higher standards in clinical care for patients, to supporting practices to adapt and change.”

He said he believed the “foundations for change” had been laid, adding: “We will work to make the job of a being a GP manageable, stimulating and fulfilling once again, returning to a time when we can deliver the best quality, personalised care that our patients need without a detrimental impact on our own health and wellbeing.”

The college’s new chair is Professor Kamila Hawthorne, a GP in south Wales.