Labour plan to bring back the family doctor impractical, says BMA

A GP treats a patient in Bristol. Streeting told the Telegraph: ‘Increasingly, patients are made to bend their lives to suit the health service.’ Photograph: Christopher Jones/Alamy

A Labour proposal for patients to be able to request a particular GP is “an impossible ask” given the shortage of doctors, the British Medical Association (BMA) has said, heralding another possible clash with Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.

Streeting said on Monday that a Labour government would offer incentives for GP practices in England where patients were regularly able to see the same or a named doctor, and impose penalties on those less able to achieve this.