Tag: Royal College of GPs

The press release issued by the Royal College of GPs on 1 November 2022.

The College has today announced that Chief Operating Officer Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick MBE will be leaving in January 2023 to take up the role of Chief Executive Officer at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Dr Vaughan-Dick has had extensive leadership experience in central and local government, and in the public and voluntary sectors. She joined the College as Executive Director, Planning and Resources in 2014 and has been the College’s COO, the equivalent of Chief Executive Officer, since 2017.

She reports to the Chair of Trustees and Chair of Council and is responsible for 300 staff supporting GP teams to raise standards of patient care. During her time at the College, she has overseen significant transformational change whilst ensuring stability for the organisation during the pandemic years.

With College Chair Professor Martin Marshall, she has led work to promote equality, diversity and inclusion within the College and general practice, and developed a strong focus on employee engagement.

She has also raised the profile of the RCGP’s international work, including speaking at World Health Organization and United Nations conferences.

She was awarded an MBE in Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 for her services to general practice and to ethnic minority communities.

The College’s Chair of Trustees Professor Mike Holmes has convened a panel of College Officers and Trustees to address interim arrangements and begin the process for appointing Dr Vaughan-Dick’s successor.

Professor Holmes said: “Valerie’s calm, collaborative and compassionate leadership has steered the College through significant transformational change, while delivering ‘business as usual’ to our GP members during the turbulence of the pandemic years. We will be very sorry to see her go but wish her the very best in her new role.”

Dr Vaughan-Dick said: “Being Chief Operating Officer of the RCGP has been a highlight of my career. It has been a privilege to work with such a dedicated team of GPs and staff and I am proud of all we have achieved in supporting the College’s 54,000 members and the patients they care for.”

The press release issued by the Royal College of GPs on 28 October 2022.

Commenting on the news that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has abandoned his proposal to charge patients for missed GP appointments, Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “We’re pleased to hear this development. Charging patients for missed appointments would not have worked, would have disadvantaged some of our most vulnerable patients, and would simply have been tinkering at the edges given the scale of the crisis facing GPs and our teams.

“The latest NHS figures hammer home how GPs and our teams are working harder than ever whilst the number of fully-qualified full-time equivalent GPs has fallen since the Government made its manifesto promise of 6,000 more GPs by 2024 – a manifesto that the new Prime Minister has said he is committed to delivering.

“We’re pleased that the Prime Minister has listened to our concerns around charging for appointments. We now hope that he will listen to us about how to address the intense workload and workforce pressures GPs and our teams are working under, and the impact these are having on patients, and act.

“First and foremost, the Government must address the workforce crisis in general practice by devising and implementing a recruitment and retention strategy that will go beyond the 6,000 GPs promised, and make GP workload more manageable by reducing unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy. We must also see a return to 11% of the total health spend in general practice, and investment in our IT systems and premises, so that GPs and our teams can deliver the care our patients need and continue to keep the NHS sustainable.

“While we do not agree with fining patients for missing appointments, we would urge patients who are able to who no longer need their appointment to let their surgery know as soon as possible that they won’t be attending, so that consultations can be offered to other patients.”

The press release issued by the Royal College of GPs on 27 October 2022.

Responding to the latest NHS general practice workforce and consultation data, Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs said: “It’s important that the new Prime Minister and Health Secretary take note of today’s general practice data and urgently act to address the intense workload and workforce pressures facing our profession, and the impact this is having on patients.

“The figures show that GPs and our teams are working flat out to ensure patients receive the care and services they need, consistently delivering more consultations every month then before the pandemic. More than 29m appointments were delivered in September – almost 3m or 11% more than the same month pre-pandemic – with 41% of those carried out on the day they were booked, and more than two thirds delivered in person.

“Yet, while GPs and our teams work harder and harder, the number of fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs has fallen since the Government’s 2019 manifesto pledge to build the workforce by 6,000 by 2024.

“General practice is the bedrock of the health service, making the vast majority of NHS patient contacts and in doing so alleviating pressures elsewhere, including in A&E, but it is a service at breaking point. GPs and our teams are burning out, struggling to manage a workload that is escalating both in terms of volume and complexity.

“If the new Prime Minister is serious about delivering his Government’s manifesto, as he has this week said he is, then he needs to act fast and take heed of the College’s calls in our Fit for the Future campaign. First and foremost, he must address the workforce crisis in general practice by devising and implementing a recruitment and retention strategy that will go beyond the 6,000 GPs promised, and make GP workload more manageable by reducing unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy. We also must see a return to 11% of the total health spend in general practice, and investment in our IT systems and premises, so that GPs and our teams can deliver the care our patients need and continue to keep the NHS sustainable.”

Commenting further on the Prime Minister’s plans to charge patients for missed appointments, Prof Marshall said:

“It’s always frustrating to hear about missed GP appointments, particularly at a time when we have nowhere near enough GPs to meet increasing need for our services, as these could have been used for other patients. But charging for appointments is not the answer. It would fundamentally change the principle that the NHS is free at the point of need and would likely impact on our most vulnerable patients most – and it would add another layer of bureaucracy to a GP service already drowning in red tape.

“While we do not agree with fining patients for missing appointments, we would urge patients who are able to who no longer need their appointment to let their surgery know as soon as possible that they won’t be attending, so that consultations can be offered to other patients.”