Tories promise 6000 extra GPs by 2024

General practice hit the headlines this week when the Conservatives promised to deliver 6000 more GPs by 2024-25 as part of a pledge to provide 50 million more appointments in GP surgeries every year.1

The announcement was immediately dismissed as “empty promises” in some quarters,2 given that the government has failed to achieve a very similar pledge made in 2015 for 5000 extra GPs by 2020. The number of GPs has actually fallen,3 and workforce and workload pressures mean that the new target looks highly unachievable.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth was quick to pounce, arguing that the Conservatives “always make election promises which they fail to deliver on.” Labour has pledged to increase GP training places in England by around 43%—from 3500 to 5000 places—if elected.4

But the health and …