Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is today launching a campaign shaming the Tory Government over the national crisis in GP surgeries.
The 55-year-old is demanding Boris Johnson “rebuilds general practice” and is joining forces with his former sworn enemies at the British Medical Association.
The move follows repeated broken Tory promises to increase the GP workforce.
And it comes a week after the Royal College of GPs told the Health Select Committee, which Mr Hunt now chairs, family doctors have just two to three minutes of patient consultation time per health issue.
As Health Secretary Mr Hunt had a bitter dispute with the BMA in 2016 and presided over the first NHS general strike of junior doctors over a proposed draconian new contract.
Today he joins the BMA to reveal GP polling showing nine in 10 fear patients are not safe at their surgeries.
Mr Hunt said: “The BMA and I haven’t always sat on the same side of table, but I’m joining them and other GPs today to sound the alarm about the workforce crisis in our surgeries because we must now rebuild general practice as a matter of urgency.
“We can forget fixing the backlog unless we urgently come up with a plan to train enough doctors for the future and crucially, retain the ones we’ve got.
“As someone who tried hard to get more GPs into local surgeries but ultimately didn’t succeed because the numbers retiring early exceeded those joining, I’m passionate about fixing this.”
Doctors are seeing on average 45 patients a day, while previously 25 was deemed safe.
Mr Hunt will today be joined by GPs and BMA leaders for a campaign launch in Marylebone, Central London, setting out three key demands to “rebuild general practice”.
They want the Government to fulfil its pledge to recruit 6,000 more family doctors in England by 2024.
They are also calling for a plan to reduce GP workloads to safe levels and for factors driving experienced doctors out of the profession to be properly addressed.
