Rebuild General Practice: February newsletter
2024-03-05
Welcome to the February 2024 edition of the Rebuild General Practice newsletter.
Below, you can catch up on what the campaign has been up to over the last month and get a flavour of what’s to come, including some exciting activations in the pipeline for the month of March.
If there is anything more you would like to see more of, please do get in touch via hello@rebuildgp.co.uk.
All the best,
The Rebuild GP team
Campaign impact: February 2024
Meetings with MPs
GPs have continued meeting with politicians in their constituencies to sound the alarm on the crisis in general practice. Many thanks to the GPs who have met with MPs in order to tell the reality of what they are seeing on the ground and let politicians know what they can do to help Rebuild General Practice.
Wes Streeting meeting
A highlight from this month is a call between Dorset LMC and Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting. The Rebuild campaign was glad to contribute to Dorset LMC’s efforts by providing a briefing ahead of the call to ensure that as GPs, we are presenting a unified, cohesive, and consistent message.
Mr Streeting fed back that he was extremely pleased with the meeting and that our messaging around retaining the GP workforce and ensuring fair funding within the NHS was received and respected.
How we can help you
As ever, the Rebuild team is here to help you. We have many GPs and LMCs who are working with the campaign ahead of independently organised meetings with MPs – and we encourage you to get in touch with your local MP and continue opening eyes in Westminster to the reality of the crisis. Lower down, you’ll find our comprehensive ‘Write to your MP/MSP/MS’ templates and guides for how you can easily get in touch with your references.
Rebuild GP on the road
South East roadshow event
At the start of this month, the campaign team set off on our seventh and penultimate stop of our grassroots roadshow to meet with GPs and LMCs based in the South East of England.
Gathering near Gatwick, co-hosted by the teams from Wessex LMC and Sussex & Surrey LMCs, we delivered our media and political engagement workshop to 20 GPs. We also welcomed Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, where GPs shared on-the-ground stories about the current reality of general practice.
Getting to know PPCs
With a general election on the horizon, getting to know PPCs is crucial. We’ve already seen a Liberal Democrat PPC who attended January’s East of England roadshow event (who has a 70% probability of being elected) publishing an article in favour of GPs and committing to listening/working with the Rebuild General Practice campaign in the future.
Nottinghamshire LMC Annual Conference
We also made a stop at the Nottinghamshire LMC Annual Conference on 7th February. We had a productive time deepening connections with GPs in Nottinghamshire, where we delivered an introduction to the campaign for new faces and a media masterclass with an engaged audience.
Thank you to all GPs in attendance for being active participants and committing to your involvement in the Rebuild campaign.
Grassroots GPs in the press
The campaign continues its work to influence media conversations about general practice both behind the scenes through meetings with journalists, and publicly by ensuring GP voices are included in media reports and shine a light on the reality of general practice.
Some highlights from the month include:
A Liberal Democrat PPC publish an article explicitly supporting the Rebuild campaign alongside Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer and Dr Diana Hunter;
Coverage of polling conducted by the Rebuild campaign being used to back up a new continuity of care study;
And Dr Rachel Ward’s words featuring in GP Online and the Daily Express backing the study on behalf of GPs and patients.
The action you can take in March 2024
Get to know your local PPCs
Polls are predicting a big shake up at the upcoming general election – meaning MPs are not the only important voices we need to be influencing.
Political parties are currently selecting their election candidates, many of whom will likely soon take their seats in the House of Commons.
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide of the most competitive seats across England, Scotland, and Wales – so you can get ahead of the curve and capture the attention of PPCs before they become MPs inundated with new-MP duties.
We’ve already seen commitments from PPCs who have attended our grassroots roadshow, but there’s more work to do.
You can access our PPC Map at rebuildgp.co.uk/PPC-map – which includes information on the most highly contested seats, the candidates, and contact details for you to get in touch.
Tell us your stories
The Rebuild campaign is built around you and your experiences in general practice. We know that every surgery is different, and every GP has unique stories about the ups and downs of the profession.
That’s why we want to hear from you. We would love for you to tell us a selection of your experiences – positive and negative – so we can work with you in creating stories that cut through to media and to patients.
All the questions in the survey are optional - but the more we know, the more we can work with you to represent general practice as accurately as possible.
You can access the survey here.
Write to your MP
Last month, we asked you to write to write to your MPs en masse to ensure that general practice is at the top of their inboxes and minds going into this crucial general election period.
But the effort does not stop in February. We still don’t know when the election will be called, but 26th March is the last possible date a May election can be called – which is a real possibility. We need you to mobilise your MPs, MSPs, and MS’s ahead of the campaigning period to make the most impact possible.
Everything you need – email templates, how to find your MP/MSP/MS, social media posts – is right here.
Coming soon: patient engagement toolkit
We know how much GPs care about their patients. We have heard your call for resources to help you convey the crisis in general practice to patients in an empathetic but realistic way. The campaign has put together a toolkit for patient engagement and we look forward to sharing it with you, with instructions on how to use it, in the coming week.
