Government will hit 'difficult' 5,000-GP recruitment target, pledges health secretary

[Northerner]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has pledged the government will meet its target of recruiting an extra 5,000 GPs by 2020/21, despite admitting the goal was proving 'difficult, to say the least'.

In a video message to GPs at the RCGP annual conference 2018 in Glasgow, Mr Hancock said that to achieve his vision of building a more sustainable, prevention-focused NHS, 'quite simply we need an expansion of primary care and we need more GPs'.

Under a target set by then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt in 2015, the government pledged to increase the full-time equivalent (FTE) GP workforce by 5,000 by 2020/21.

However, since the target was set the FTE GP workforce has instead dropped by more than 1,400 - a decline that RCGP chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard has called 'distressing and demoralising'.

https://www.gponline.com/government...rget-pledges-health-secretary/article/1495065

(free registration required)

 

[trophywench]

Well can't argue that we don't need more, although the figure is now 6,400 not 5,000 - but the teeny conundrum of 'where from?' seems to be puzzling me more than somewhat …..

 

[Northerner]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think Hancock is a bit like an enthusiastic puppy in his new job? I think it's way over his head and capabilities.

 

[grovesy]

He seems to think technology will solve it all.

 

[mikeyB]

Ask any medical student what they want to be when they grow up, and very few will say GP. Even then, they might add Australia. Unless you remove the complex mess that CCGs cause, only a masochist would want to go into General Practice. Or double the money.

For sure, I wouldn’t do it now. Not in England, anyway. Scotland, yes.

It’s worth mentioning that doctoring runs in families. Any son or daughter of a GP will hear nothing but moans about what a shitty job it has become.

How this idiot Hancock expects to fulfil this pledge is beyond me.

 

[Northerner]

How this idiot Hancock expects to fulfil this pledge is beyond me.

And beyond him, I suspect

I'm looking forward to see how the government get round their pledge of £20bn when they announce the budget, I'm expecting some dodgy accounting and 're-purposing' of past funds

 

[grovesy]

I saw him being pushed in the week where the money was coming from for the funding and he either answered that is up to the Chancellor or avoided answering the question.

 

[scousebird]

My daughter in law qualified as a GP in August and officially joined the practice she had been training at in September. On advice from colleagues at the practice she is doing 3 days a week, she may increase that in time. Each day she is expected to see 36-38 patients. Not surprisingly burn out/stress rates are very high apparently.

 

[trophywench]

Let's assume an 8 hour day with an hour for lunch. 7 x 60 minutes = 420 mins working time.

36 x 10min appointments = 360 leaving a whole hour to complete all the necessary paperwork. How much of her GP training course was devoted to touch typing?