RCGP council 20/9/25
Again I don’t repeat what others have said.
what I did speak on :
1) Neighbourhood health scheme – NHS England really – but the issue here is that it’s creating a ‘shadow’ system of general practice and is likely to eventually shift resources away from holistic primary care. This is a bad idea; giving GPs responsibility without power/resources is a bad idea and we should learn from the failings of the most recent GP contract in Scotland. Some aspects of PG education can /should be done communally, but GPs have a different set of responsibilities and skills and that needs to be serviced
2) Governance paper – I don’t think this will solve known problems. I think there is a large risk of further concentrating power in a smaller and smaller group of people with less impact /ability of council to influence it’s own strategy. I don’t think this is good for a membership organisation. I think we need worked examples and clearer ways for council to oversee eg appointments of lay trustees with better information
3) I was a bit upset with a comment somewhere that the short life working group on sponsorship was unelected, inferring unhappiness, I was asked to be on along with anyone else that said they were interested and no one was refused. Maybe asking people more formally in future would help. In any case it’s an ongoing live issue and there will be a request later on for wider membership involvement on deciding future travel. (and noting all this stuff is done for free and my other work has to be moved around to accomodate it)
4) conflicts of interest. Sometimes dual roles create an un manageable conflict. I think we need to talk about this more. There is a limit to how many ‘hats’ one can wear. The best people to make a judgement about when a declaration is a conflict is not always the person making the declaration.
On a personal note, it’s very hard to travel just now (much pain, long story, and a long way to travel if opportunities to speak are limited (I understand the need for time management but I don’t always think it’s always helpfully applied). Thinking about what to do with this.
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