London general: 70 years of improving life in the Capital

NHS general practice is celebrating its 70th birthday, which is a major milestone in the history of British medicine. The availability of general practice to Londoners (8m of us in 1948, 9m now, but as few as 6.5m in the 1990s) has been the bedrock of the NHS since its founding, providing cradle-to-grave care to all families, including those in the most deprived communities.
 
With 90% of NHS contacts taking place in general practice, GPs and practice teams are the face of the NHS throughout the Capital. Recently the Government announced a £20bn investment in the NHS, but from past experience little of this will reach the frontline of general practice. It is likely to be, as with much of our history, the hard work and dedication of the whole team working inside each GP surgery that delivers the next 70 years’ of success. So, on this significant birthday I would like to reflect on what general practice has achieved.
 
Universal coverage
 
Thanks to the development of NHS general practice, more and more people are now in regular contact with their GP:
 
Eradicating disease
 
Before the NHS many people were dying from preventable ailments such as diphtheria or tetanus. Today the children have access to universal vaccination programmes, delivered by general practice:
 
Longer lives
 
Average lifespans have grown substantially since 1948, with the work of general practice meaning far more people are living decades beyond retirement age:
A diverse workforce
 
Over the past 70 years, the NHS has transformed into being among the most diverse workforces in the world, currently a quarter of NHS staff working in London are from outside the UK and general practice draws its talent from across the globe:
The enduring role of the family doctor
 
These achievements are impressive and a testament to the way general practice has developed with the NHS, but the values of general practice have rightly remained the same. A report from 1948, titled Public Health in 1948: Remarkable Statistics: the first months of the National Health Service paints a picture that GPs and practice teams would recognise today, although now we do have equal numbers of “his” and “hers”:
 
“The success of the family doctor service depends primarily on the family doctor's relationship with his patients and that is not changed merely by an alteration in the method of payment for service. The administration required is far less than in the other branches. The service has been extremely popular with the public and it seems that despite the size of the undertaking and despite the uneven distribution of load which follows from the present distribution of doctors, the family doctors carried it successfully through its first year.”
 
The clinical team is made up of GPs, nurses, advanced practitioners, healthcare assistants and numerous new roles delivers so much more than the sum of its parts. Triaging, advice on self-care, diabetes management and many other tasks have been passed from GPs to skilled colleagues. The support they received from practice managers, administrators and reception staff enables the clinical team to take on these wider roles and helps to relieve much of the bureaucratic load which the powers-that-be choose to impose.
Last updated : 05 Jul 2018

 

The M Word issue 6 - Dr Michelle Drage's latest personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (16 Dec 2011)

I have 3 updates for you:   The Health and Social Care Bill, 1 year on GP Primary Medical...
Read more »

The M Word issue 5 - Dr Michelle Drage's latest personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (10 Oct 2011)

  Here's the latest update on what has and what has not been going on over the last few weeks, and what is likely to happen over the Autumn. I...
Read more »

The M Word issue 4 - Dr Drage's briefing on the NHS reforms (15 Jun 2011)

The Day After...   The Politics The Real World Michelle’s 3 step guide (definitely not a toolkit) to QIPP and GRIP   Dr Michelle Drage FRCGPCEO Londonwide...
Read more »

The M Word issue 3 - Dr Michelle Drage's briefing on NHS reforms (07 Jun 2011)

I thought I’d share three of my more serious thoughts to do with Providing General Practice and NOT commissioning (mostly!)   The new transitional management landscape in London Our...
Read more »

GPC news June 2011 (01 Jun 2011)

Download latest edition of GPC news here.
Read more »

The M Word issue 2 - Dr Michelle Drage's personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms (14 Apr 2011)

In issue 1 I set out to make some sense of the language and jargon of the new NHS world and give you some not-so-subliminal messages about what we...
Read more »

The M Word issue 1 (10 Apr 2011)

Dr Michelle Drage's personal briefing for practices on NHS reforms. This is the first in my personal series of briefings which will provide commentary and updates on key issues facing...
Read more »

GPC news October 2009 (01 Oct 2009)

Download the latest edition of GPC news here.
Read more »
« Previous Page