Election Day

Picture by: Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com

Election Day is finally here and whatever the outcome, it has been one of the most exciting build-ups I can remember. We will of course work with whichever party is in power in Westminster and whichever parties are in charge of health in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

My job as Chairman is a huge responsibility and while it’s not (quite) on the scale of leading a major political party, working with the parties has given me a lot more empathy with their leaders and I now understand that however hard you try, you can’t get it right all the time

A good example came last week when I represented the College at a joint conference with the King’s Fund and the Royal College of Physicians on the future of the NHS. It was a stimulating event, attracting a very influential audience, and I used the opportunity to talk at length about the role of the GP at the centre of the NHS, quality general practice, and the need for strong GP leadership and for a call for better integrated care across the specialties.

The general consensus was that whatever the outcome of the election, the NHS is stuffed financially for the next few years, but that GPs are best placed to lead the health service through the turbulent times ahead and that we can be relied upon to run cost-effective services without damaging the quality of patient care.

So you can imagine my dismay when I logged onto the website of GP newspaper and saw the story RCGP Chairman urges GPs to ‘grow up’ on pay. My presentation had been completely ignored in favour of one line on GP pay, which is not the business of the College in any case.

Clocking up the amount of media that I do, I’m usually laid back about the odd misquote here or there. I appreciate that journalists have their job to do and that positive stories about general practice don’t always create the best headlines - but this time I really saw red.

In their defence, the journalists at GP moved swiftly to print a clarification which is now online and will be printed as a letter in next week’s issue, but as far as I’m concerned the damage has been done and I can only apologise to any of you who have already read or will go on to read the story.

To set the record straight, I do think that GPs are now paid "appropriately" and so we should be, after years of being underpaid and underestimated for the work we do. I also believe that we should grow up, but by that I mean “grow into” the role of NHS leaders determining our own way ahead, rather than being passive receivers of what others are doing.
We have overwhelming evidence, most recently from the Commonwealth study and the American College of Physicians, that we have the best primary care system in the world, so why-oh-why is this always overshadowed by how much we are paid?

We can sit back and feel got at or we can choose to rise above it. It’s ironic that when the chips are down, the profession seems to come into its own and we just get on and do the best we possibly can for our patients while the voices of doom resonate around us.

Today has been a busy one so far and I spent this morning at the Department of Health talking about the need for GP leadership at all levels. By the end of today, we should have a new Government and whatever its complexion, we need to use this as an opportunity to show our mettle and demonstrate how GPs can steer the NHS through the choppy waters of the next few years, without our patients noticing any detrimental difference in the care they receive.