The Kings Fund responds to the GP funding announcement and GP ballot results

Alex Baylis, Co-Director of Policy at The King's Fund, commented on the announcement of funding to recruit more GPs, and the results of the British Medical Association (BMA) ballot for GPs to take collective action

‘GP practices are the front door to the NHS, so collective action by GPs will hit patients hard and the impact will reverberate across the whole health and care system.

‘The latest data shows that GP practices delivered 28.6 million appointments in June, which is nearly 5 million more appointments compared with the same month in 2019. Even a small reduction in the availability of GP appointments will see thousands of patients turn to other services such as 111, pharmacies and A&E departments, many of which will struggle to meet this extra demand.

‘The government's decision to free up immediate funding for practices to recruit more GPs is welcome. While it's only a sticking plaster solution, it should help end the absurdity of GPs struggling to find jobs at the same time that patients are struggling to find GP appointments.

‘The long-term solution to many of the challenges faced by the NHS is to bolster GP, community, and other out-of-hospital services. There have already been positive signs that the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care wants to rebalance the NHS so that more care is provided closer to people's homes; however, that goal is hard to realise amid industrial action and we hope there will be a swift resolution to any dispute.'

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Notes to editors