15 October 2018
Loneliness Strategy Is a ‘Great Result’ For GPs and Patients, But We Need More Detail on Funding and How it Will Work In Practice, Says College
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, has responded to the launch of a new Loneliness Strategy from the government today.
She said: “Today’s announcement is a great result for GPs and for patients. The College has been at the forefront of campaigning to highlight the adverse health implications of loneliness and this shows how much impact we have had in a short space of time.
“GPs across the country are seeing an increase in the number of patients, across all generations, who are not ‘medically ill’ but whose problems stem from social isolation, so it is very encouraging to see the Government taking action on this.
“Our community action plan called for access to a ‘social prescriber’ in every practice and the ‘connector’ schemes outlined today will be a major step forward to achieving this.
“We look forward to more detail about how the proposals will be funded and how they will work in practice. We must ensure that we have a society-wide approach to this challenge and that responsibility for the success of the strategy does not fall disproportionately on GPs and their teams.”
Further Information
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press@rcgp.org.uk
Notes
The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 52,000 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.