皇冠体育app

Good morning.

It鈥檚 great to be able to join you today through the wonders of modern technology. And if this call cuts out it鈥檚 probably due to the patchy wifi in Westminster rather than a failure with the tech.

皇冠体育app Commons isn鈥檛 the most dynamic, fast-moving place 鈥� as you may have noticed.

I鈥檓 delighted to have the opportunity to speak with you today because, even amid everything that鈥檚 going on here, some things are more important than Brexit. Things like the NHS. Things like primary care.

Primary care is the foundation of the health service in this country, which means GPs are the bedrock of the NHS.

And, I鈥檇 like to briefly talk about 3 things that, I believe, are fundamental to getting that foundation right.

Number 1: people.

Number 2: structure.

And 3: tech.

I鈥檒l take each in turn.

First: people.

皇冠体育appre are over 3 times as many doctors working in hospitals than there are doctors in general practice. And yet, last year, there were nearly 15 times as many GP visits as there were hospital admissions.

Clearly, there鈥檚 a disconnect between those figures. And of course acuity is higher in hospitals. But the number of hospital doctors has gone up much faster than GPs.

More than a million appointments a day now happen in general practice, but, historically, we haven鈥檛 prioritised general practice enough.

It鈥檚 absolutely vital we get more people into general practice: we need to recruit more, we need to retain more, we need to make the perception, and reality, of being a GP as prestigious as any specialism.

So I鈥檓 delighted that the latest Health Education England figures for GP recruitment, published this week, show that 3,538 doctors have accepted a place on GP speciality training this year 鈥� the highest ever number in history.

This builds on the record numbers we recruited last year. And the 250 more full-time equivalent doctors we have working in general practice this year.

We need to go further and faster, and remain committed to recruiting 5,000 more GPs.

We have started to recruit an additional 20,000 clinical staff to support GPs in primary care within the next 5 years.

皇冠体育appre鈥檚 more money going into primary and community care: 拢4.5 billion extra each year by 2023 to 2024 鈥� funding increasing faster for primary care than the NHS as a whole. Because we know there are staffing challenges and it鈥檚 critical we address those challenges to build a sustainable NHS.

So that means building on our recruitment success, and addressing the underlying issues that affect retention: workload, pensions, pay, training. Doing everything we can to help experienced GPs stay on, or back into, the profession.

Second: structure.

I like to use this analogy: previously, many GPs were like soloists, or perhaps a string quartet 鈥� brilliant individual musicians.

But now, and increasingly in the future, you鈥檙e going to be more like the conductor of an orchestra. Pulling together a team of specialists to produce something more than the sum of its parts.

So your specialist skill is still going to be vital to the delivery of primary care, but you鈥檙e also going to need another set of skills as primary care networks and multi-disciplinary teams expand.

Expanding your clinical skills, and developing your leadership skills.

And we have to ensure that leaders not only have the right numbers of people, but also the right structures in place to succeed.

We launched the landmark Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice in April.

And we鈥檙e doing more to help you limit personal liabilities, reduce risk, and work in bigger teams.

We want to make it easier for GP practises to become mutuals.

And we鈥檙e bringing forward a range of recommendations in the Partnership Review to make your lives easier.

Structure also means addressing the outdated practice preventing GPs from being listed on the General Medical Council鈥檚 (GMC) specialist register. It鈥檚 not right, and it doesn鈥檛 reflect the increasingly important role GPs are going to play in the delivery of personalised, preventative healthcare in the future.

We will work with the GMC to change this and include GPs on the specialist register at the earliest opportunity.

But structure is also about process.

When I鈥檝e seen practices and networks of similar sizes and similar demographics, the striking difference between the ones performing really well, and the ones who aren鈥檛 performing as well, is the processes they have in place.

By changing the process, you can improve performance.

Just to give you one example I saw at the Quorn Medical Centre in Loughborough.

皇冠体育appir telephone triage system is excellent. Patients can get a same-day telephone appointment, and if appropriate, they鈥檒l be asked to come to the surgery, or directed to a pharmacist, or other primary or secondary care.

And the reason it works so well is because they have one of their most experienced GPs on the telephone triage system.

So many surgeries use their most junior staff, often the receptionist. But an effective and efficient triage system can make an enormous difference to access, and that鈥檚 what matters most to people: feeling like you can speak to your GP when you need it.

And this a 150-year-old technology we鈥檙e talking about 鈥� even Jacob Rees-Mogg has one.

Informed by the access review, we will enable the spread of best practice to support practices and networks. Many will receive targeted support to help them adopt new ways of working, to free up time to improve access, and to implement best triage.

This will build on the good work already done by the Time for Care programme. That has already supported practices to free up more than half a million hours of time for patients.

Which brings me to the third, and final, thing I鈥檇 like to talk about today: tech.

Tech is our friend.

It鈥檚 allowing me to speak to you now. It鈥檚 going to transform the delivery of primary care.

And it isn鈥檛 about replacing people, it鈥檚 about enhancing what trained, skilled, experienced professionals can do.

So let me paint you a picture: you鈥檙e a GP, you鈥檙e also a parent, you鈥檙e balancing work and childcare, like so many people do.

Using the tech of today, you can do video consultations, from your own home, after dropping the children off at school. You can advise, prescribe and book a patient in with a colleague at your GP surgery or primary care network.

Tomorrow, it may be other way around, with you at the surgery, and your colleague working from home.

Modern tech, allows for modern ways of working and living. It helps with recruitment and retention. And, above all, it means we improve access for patients.

People get frustrated by the lack of access, not just by the lack of appointments. At the moment, physical appointments are often the only way to get access, but as we expand phone and video, there鈥檚 so much more we can do to help you do your jobs, and get the very best out of each and every one of our 44,570 GPs.

So digitising paper records, real-time and secure access to records for GPs and patients, IT infrastructure that works, inter-operable systems as standard, electronic prescribing to complement the millions of people now accessing GP services digitally 鈥� getting all of this tech right so we can deliver better care for people.

That鈥檚 what all of us want.

And, I鈥檇 just like to end by paying tribute to someone, who has done so much to improve primary care, both for staff and patients: Helen Stokes-Lampard.

She鈥檚 done a wonderful job as chair, and I would say I鈥檓 sorry to see her go, but she鈥檚 only going as far as the new National Academy for Social Prescribing, where she鈥檒l still be championing general practice and leading the way on social prescribing.

So thank you, Helen, for your fantastic contribution, and I鈥檇 like to welcome Martin Marshall to this vital role.

I look forward to working with you because general practice has always been, and always will be, the bedrock of the NHS.

Thank you.