The 2022 GP: our profession, our patients, our future

‘Primary health care offers the best way of coping with the ills of life in the 21st century: the globalisation of unhealthy lifestyles, rapid unplanned urbanisation, and the ageing of populations.’Margaret Chan, director general, World Health Organization, 2008.1

The value of the GP has been demonstrated over many decades; research in the UK, Europe, and in the US has shown that having more GPs per head of population is associated with better health outcomes, cheaper services, and better patient experience.2 Despite this, our workforce is under growing pressure from a rising age profile and a fall in the proportion of new entrants to the profession and those returning to work.3

As a profession, general practice is under constant threat. Barely a week goes by without another report implying that GPs have failed in some way: by not diagnosing cancer early enough, not prescribing safely enough, not providing sufficient care for patients with dementia, and so forth. The number of complaints against GPs has risen, so that those against us now represent nearly half of all complaints made to the General Medical Council.4 Groups with particular interests routinely announce that GPs need more training in the areas relating to those interests, yet rarely do they acknowledge that GPs in the UK have one of the shortest specialty training periods in Europe5 — nor do they acknowledge that …