Royal college calls for 11% of NHS budget to reach primary care by 2017

More than 34 million patients in England will be unable to get an appointment with their family doctor this year because of chronic underinvestment in the service, the Royal College of General Practitioners has warned.

The college’s chairwoman, Maureen Baker, said that general practice had been “brought to its knees” by continual reductions in funding over the past decade. She called for an increase in resources to avert the “crisis” and enable practices to cope with rapidly increasing demand.

The college said that …