The RCGP tells us:

“The GP Forward View, launched a year ago by NHS England, could be the lifeline that general practice so desperately needs – and the General Election provides us with a window of opportunity to see its pledges delivered in full.

“Regardless of the result on 8 June, it is crucial that any future government delivers the investment and support our GPs so desperately need to provide the high quality care that all our patients need and deserve.

“When general practice thrives, the NHS survives and we will be doing everything we can between now and 8 June to ensure that the collective voice of hardworking GPs and our patients is heard loud and clear by the political parties of all persuasions.”

“Patient care must not take a ‘back seat to Brexit’ in the run-up to the General Election.

In Six Steps for Safer General Practice we call for:

• Delivery of the GP Forward View in England, including investment of an additional £2.4bn per year in general practice by 2020;

• At least 5,000 more full-time equivalent GPs by 2020, with more medical students choosing general practice as a career and improved support to retain GPs already working in general practice;

• Guaranteed status for EU healthcare professionals already working in the UK – and for it to be made as easy as possible for doctors from the EU to move to and work in the UK;

• An extension of GP specialty training from three to four years to reflect the increasingly complex health needs of patients in primary care;

• Long-term measures to bring down the rising costs of medical indemnity insurance that GPs, unlike hospital doctors, must meet themselves; and

• The introduction of a national ‘return to practice’ scheme to recruit more general practice nurses, alongside increased numbers of pharmacists and mental health therapists in GP surgeries.

My response? It’s simple- I agree.

I have met young and old who just want to see their GP.

I have met GP’s so frazzled by their workload and hours that their own health is failing.

There has to be a solution- and in this manifesto, the RCGP is posing a credible and practical solution.