SOUTHAMPTON MEDICAL SOCIETY
President: Dr Alan Roberts FRCP
A meeting of the Southampton Medical Society was held on Zoom on the 2nd of November 2021. The President was in the chair. A period of silence was held in the memory of Dr Alan Johnson.The minutes of the last ordinary meeting were circulated beforehand and approved. The President introduced our speaker Dr Nigel Watson who spoke to the title “General Practice; Past Present and Future”. Dr Watson started by outlining the history of the NHS from its inception in 1947 to the present. He was asked by the Health Secretary to chair a committee on general practice for the NHS 10 year plan, concentrating on the GP partnership model, which reported in 2019. He visited general practices country wide - both good and bad. He found the workload of GPs was too great; the working day was getting progressively longer and the demand on the workforce was greater than its capacity to cope. Furthermore young GPs were no longer wanting to become partners in part due to the increasing financial risks of being left the last one in harness. He said the risk needs to be reduced. There is a need to reduce the unlimited financial liabilities of partnerships. Indemnity should be provided by a state backed system. More senior partners are retiring earlier now and fewer doctors are interested in replacing them. This is accentuated by general practice being out of favour as a full time career. His report also recommended that we need to increase the number of medical students and that the Wass report should be implemented. The committee recommended that an early career Primary Care Fellowship should be created that would last for two years for aspiring GP partners after they have completed their basic compulsory GP training. New young partners should have business training as an inducement. In a GP’s mid career, to improve career opportunities, there should be training for future leaders in the NHS. Dr Watson said the treasury was unwilling to put money into practices directly. There was a need to expand the primary care teams fully in general practices. This would cost in the region of £1.4 billion if done properly. The report also covered creation of primary care networks, reducing the workload and reducing bureaucracy. The committee also noted that the gap between GPs and specialists was getting much wider and they outlined the services that could be provided by the Primary Care Network. There needs to be a clear vision for General Practice and its role. In the last 2 years ways of working had changed due to the pandemic with technology playing a major role and a reduction in the traditional face to face approach. In the future Dr Watson foresaw larger practices, perhaps with the development of pods, and GPs leading a team of primary care providers. These practices might have 50,000 patients with 6 pods of 5000. There would be separate pods for emergency care and home visits and these would have specialist GPs. Other specialist hubs could be introduced as needed which might cover the majority of medical care eventually.
There was a lively discussion concerning these matters afterwards.
The President thanked the speaker for his very interesting talk.
There being no other business the meeting was closed.