UK needs 10 000 more GPs by 2022 to meet needs, report says

General practice in the United Kingdom needs huge extra investment and at least 10 000 more GPs by 2022 to meet the population’s growing and increasingly complex health needs, says a report from the Royal College of General Practitioners.1

The college said that without these resources the goal of an efficient 21st century model of integrated “person centred” care that was based within local communities would not happen.

Clare Gerada, president of the college, said that its report, published on 20 June, showed how changes in general practice would benefit patients, but she cautioned that funds had to shift from secondary care and that outdated premises must be improved so that more care could occur in the community.

She said, “None of this vision will become reality if we do not receive fairer investment for general practice. If …