RCGP chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne has underscored the urgent need to address these GP infrastructure issues to rescue primary care

The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has urged the government to allocate at least £2 billion in funding to enhance the ‘outdated’ GP infrastructure, including IT systems and practice buildings.

The College, representing over 54,000 family doctors in the UK – has warned that GP practice buildings are “falling apart” and this can have a serious impact on patients’ experience and access to care and services.

In a recent poll of RCGP members, a third of the GPs (30 per cent) reported that their work PC or laptop software is “not fit for purpose”, while 33 per cent indicated that their practice building is inadequate for providing care for patients.

Additionally, 56 per cent of GPs reported that they could not effectively exchange information with NHS trusts due to fundamental inadequacies in their digital infrastructure.

RCGP stated: “If GPs are unable to easily share information with hospitals and other secondary care hubs this can lead to disjointed care and a poorer patient experience.

“Similarly, if practice buildings aren’t fit for purpose, it can have a negative impact on the care patients receive. If consultation rooms are too small and cramped, or there aren’t enough of them, this not only provides a poor experience, but also limits the number of team members a practice can employ and the appointments a practice can deliver in a day.”

The College raised concerns that these issues in physical and digital infrastructure are contributing to the unrelenting pressures facing general practice.

Highlighting the escalating challenges for doctors, the College reported that GPs and their teams delivered over 27.6 million appointments last month – over 4 million more than in August 2019 – despite having fewer fully qualified full-time GPs than five years ago Read More….