The Big GP Consultation – the next generation’s view for the future of General Practice.

Contributing authors from The Big GP Consultation Team: Dr Devina Maru, Dr Liam Loftus, Dr Claire Edwin, Dr Georgina Neve, Dr Rachel Weaver, Dr Rammina Yassaie, Dr Rob Cullum, Dr Sarah Walpole, Dr Tom Gardiner, Dr Veena Aggarwal, Dr Vijay Patel. 

The problem

General Practice is often described as the foundation of the health service, and general practitioners are thought of as the bedrock of the NHS. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that to meet rising patient demand and workforce pressures, things need to change.

Recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as managing the care needs of an ageing population with rising multimorbidity, dealing with a technological revolution, working to increase the number of practicing GPs, and delivering widescale reform of our healthcare system; these are just some of the challenges facing general practice in the coming years. Transformation is inevitable, but we need to think about how this transformation is designed and led and ensure the next generation of the workforce has a voice in what this future looks like.

What we did

A team of FMLM Clinical Leadership Fellows from both primary and secondary care backgrounds launched The Big GP Consultation (https://thebiggpconsultation.co.uk/) as a platform for early career GPs and GP Trainees to have a voice on what the future holds for the profession. Collectively, we aimed to discuss how we can influence the way general practice is developed and delivered. We wanted to ensure that the new generation of GPs – those who will (hopefully) be working in the profession for many decades – have a say in shaping the future.

How we did it

Five webinars were held over four months, involving expert speakers from general practice: Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard; Dr Bola Owolabi; Dr Nikki Kanani; Professor Martin Marshall; and Professor Mayur Lakhani.  All shared their insights on topical issues affecting general practice. More than 100 GPs and trainees then retreated to breakout rooms to share their views on a range of themes, including: how clinical care is evolving; how we recruit, develop and retain our workforce; and the role we play in societal challenges, such as tackling health inequalities, and reducing the impact we have on our environment.

The details of the insights shared, and ideas generated, can all be found in our Final Report.

Impact

The insight gathered throught The Big GP Consultation were relevant for all levels of the system. These findings have been shared at national level in conversations with organisations such as the Royal College of General Practitioners, Health Education England, and NHS England. They have also been taken on board locally, during conversations with Local Medical Committees, Training Hubs, and Integrated Care Boards. We hope that this work will offer up an important piece of the puzzle to inform future policy development.

What next?

Following the release of our final report in September, our focus is now on sharing widely the insights we gathered, as well as supporting our GP colleagues to bring some of the ideas our participants shared, to life. On the latter, we have recently released The Big GP Toolkit; a series of resources created to support clinicians implementing the ideas that participants shared during the consultation, within their own practice and Primary Care Network. We look forward to sharing further information about this, and much more, at FMLM’s International Healthcare Leadership Conference on Day 2, 10 November.

General Practice continues to be the ‘beating heart’ of the NHS and is essential to meaningful integration, disease prevention and improving health outcomes overall. The future workforce will be delivering the service and therefore needs to be central to the conversation. The Big GP Consultation initiative enables us to share the vision of that future workforce, continue the conversation and empower everyone to make change.