11 March 2020
GPs Must Receive 'Significant Share' of Emergency Funding to Tackle COVID-19, Says College Chair
Responding to the Budget, Professor Martin Marshall said: "We welcome the Government's urgent action to support the NHS in these particularly challenging times – and it is essential that a significant share of the emergency funding is made available for GPs on the frontline of patient care.
"We need this urgently to ensure that all GPs and their teams have the appropriate PPE protection for face-to-face consultations, as well as the high quality technology that will enable remote consultations to take place.
"We know that half of GP premises are not fit for purpose so, in the longer term, the Chancellor needs to invest in GP surgeries, supporting them to provide for the 6,000 additional GPs and 26,000 additional staff that the Government has promised to ensure that patients can get appointments more quickly and that they receive the quality care they need and deserve. We look forward to the NHS People Plan being released in the near future, setting out how these ambitious recruitment targets will be met to ensure that our service has the workforce it needs now and in the future.
"We should pay tribute to the GPs and their teams who, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis, are going above and beyond to deliver the 'business as usual' of seeing over 1 million patients a day."
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Notes
The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 53,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.