The BMA has told the Health and Social Care Committee that the general negativity about GPs and general practice must end if the NHS wants to retain the doctors we have and recruit more.

At an oral evidence session on the Future of General Practice, Dr Kieran Sharrock, deputy chair of the BMA England's GP Committee, was asked how the NHS can ‘break the cycle’ of some GP surgeries reportedly not seeing patients face-to-face – a claim that the BMA has repeatedly rebutted and dismantled over the last two years.

Sharrock explained that throughout the pandemic GPs have seen 70 per cent of appointments face-to-face, despite their being more patients to see and less staff to see them.

A result of the assumption that GPs are not seeing patients in-person is that many practices are now seeing an increase in abuse, which has a serious impact on doctors’ welfare and ultimately drives more out of the profession, further escalating the staffing crisis.

Sharrock told the committee: “One in five GPs has been the butt of abuse as a result of the recent campaign against general practice. Dialling down the rhetoric against general practice is really important if you want to retain and recruit GPs.

“We have to be honest with the public about what general practice is delivering now, not what it should be delivering - clearly a 10 or 20-year plan is needed for that, including a workforce plan – but at the moment we can’t provide the care to the level we want to. We need the government to support us and say, 'This is what your GP can do at the moment because of the rise in demand, the huge backlog and the loss of staff.' That might actually make the profession feel supported. I have a member of my staff who burst into tears after having abuse from a patient and we have to have zero tolerance of that.”