TY - JOUR T1 - GDP, CPI, RPI, and GPs: why economic indicators matter for GPs JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 514 LP - 515 DO - 10.3399/bjgp22X720977 VL - 72 IS - 724 AU - Veline L’Esperance AU - Mark Ashworth Y1 - 2022/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/72/724/514.abstract N2 - In July 2022, the BBC reported newly released May 2022 figures showing an unexpected rise in GDP at 0.5%; predictions had been zero growth.1 Or, as GPonline put it: ‘Surge in GP appointments powers return to growth in UK economy’.2 It turned out that high GP consultation rates had been powering our economy to a far greater extent than expected. To be fair, it wasn’t just GPs; road haulage and travel agencies did their bit too. That health was the biggest driver will have come as a surprise to many working in the NHS.Who knew? Few of us realise that health care is a large contributor to GDP, that statistic that sums up the total wealth of the nation in terms of productivity.It turns out that ‘we’ (that is, health care) are part of service industries accounting for about 80% of UK economic output.3Those of us working in health care are steeped in the mentality that we are public servants, that we are stewards of taxpayers’ income entrusted to us. Our funding is a scarce resource to be used cautiously and wisely. Even more so in primary care where, among our many roles, we have a gatekeeper function. All that is true. And yet until the 1990s official GDP calculations for the public sector simply equated to what was termed the ‘outputs=inputs’ convention.3 This meant that for every additional £1 spent on health care, … ER -