Rishi Sunak has fuelled concerns that the government will miss its target of recruiting 6,000 more GPs in England, which was promised in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.
The prime minister omitted the pledge from his appointment letter to the health secretary, Steve Barclay, laying out expectations for what should be delivered by March 2024.
At the last election, Boris Johnson committed to “6,000 more doctors in general practice” as part of an NHS “people plan”.
The manifesto, which won the Conservatives a large majority in the Commons, said the government’s “core priority is to make sure this workforce can grow and has the support it needs – in terms of numbers, training and resources”.
In a letter to Barclay, seen by the Guardian, Sunak said the “commitments our party made in the manifesto” should be “the foundation for our priorities”. He added: “These are the promises on which we were elected, for which the people gave us a mandate, and on which we must make good.”
However, while Sunak reiterated other key health pledges in the manifesto – including 50,000 more nurses and the delivery of “new” hospitals – the pledge about new GPs was notably absent.
It did not get a mention under a set of instructions to Barclay to “grip delivery of key manifesto commitments to build a stronger NHS and social care system”.
The government signalled last year that it was likely to break its promise, when then health secretary Sajid Javid admitted they were “clearly not” on track to meet the 6,000 figure.
But the letter from Sunak was said by Labour to be fresh evidence that the Conservatives had “overpromised, underdelivered, and left patients paying the price”.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: “Patients are finding it impossible to get a GP appointment when they need one. First the Conservatives cut thousands of GPs, and now it seems Sunak has abandoned the pledge to recruit them back.”
He added that Labour would abolish the “non-domicile” tax status for those who have citizenship from another country to help pay for “the biggest expansion of medical training in the history of the NHS, providing the doctors and nurses needed to see patients on time”.
Prof Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, told the Guardian that the recruitment issue should be being treated by ministers as a “top priority”.
He said GPs were “the bedrock” of the health service and hiring the thousands needed was “not just necessary, it’s vital for the patient care and services we’re able to deliver and the future sustainability of the NHS”.
In September alone, GPs delivered over 29m consultations – with 41% held on the same day booked, according to the college. But it said the numbers of full-time and fully qualified GPs had fallen by 1,847 over the past seven years.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said that “growing the GP workforce is challenging” but that the government was still committed to increasing the number of GPs.
The spokesperson said there were nearly 2,300 more full-time equivalent doctors working in general practice in September 2022 compared with the same time in 2019, and that a record-breaking number started training as GPs last year.
The spokesperson added: “We are also making 4,000 training places available for GPs each year to help create an extra 50 million appointments a year.”
Last month a cross-party committee of MPs warned that GP surgeries were “demoralised”, with staff leaving “almost as fast as they can be recruited” and patients dissatisfied with the level of service they were receiving.
