General election: Send our open letter to party leaders
📸Why is this important?
Our open letter to political leaders received wide-spread and passionate support from LMCs all over the country. Before the election we are eager to remind our political leaders that they need to have general practice at the forefront of their minds.
📃How to get involved?
We have created media materials showing the Rebuild GP campaign posting our open letter to political leaders. We encourage you to quote tweet our post from @RebuildGP on X/Twitter with a photo of you sending the open letter.
To do this:
Download and print our open letter here - please take a photo of you posting the letter. You can choose which party leader you choose to send the letter to, or you can send one to all parties. All you need to do is search, for example, ‘Labour Party HQ address’ and the address will show up on Google.
Download and share our Open Letter video on social media - Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram Stories.
The suggested wording can be used for your quote tweet:
This week GPs from the Rebuild General Practice campaign up and down the country are sending our open letter to the UK’s political leaders to remind them of the crisis within general practice.
I have sent our open letter to political leaders.
Find out how you can, too at rebuildgp.co.uk/get-involved.
📣 Ask friends and colleagues to join
Please share this information with GPs, practice staff, colleagues, and friends.
Share a link to this page on WhatsApp or send them a link to your tweet.
Any questions?
Any questions please contact the Rebuild GP team by emailing hello@rebuildgp.co.uk.
General election: Write to your local newspaper editors
👥 Why is this important?
We need everyone to understand the crisis in general practice, patients, politicians and every member of our local communities. By writing to your local editors, you are helping your local area understand the issues in general practice and helping to galvanise local support. Moreover, within this short time period before the general election vote, Parliamentary candidates’ main concern is addressing local need. The more awareness we build in local communities around the crisis in general practice, the more likely candidates are to act on this issue, as they view it as vital to their local constituency
.
💻 How to get involved?
Simply use this link, to find your local newspaper editor. Then using this email address, send this pre-prepared pitch email to your local newspaper using this link.
📑 The local newspaper printed my article - who should I tell?
If your local newspaper publishes the letter you sent, we would love to hear about it. Please let us know by emailing hello@rebuild.co.uk.You can also post your article tagging @RebuildGP on X/Twitter.
📣 Ask friends and colleagues to join
Please share this information with GPs, practice staff colleagues and friends.
Share a link to this page on WhatsApp or tweet the below:
I am writing to XX newspaper about the crisis general practice, and explaining how we as GPs need fair funding, a national retention programme and greater autonomy to do our jobs. Here’s how you can too. ⬇
Retweet our post on X/Twitter.
Any questions?
Any questions or needed help to find your local paper, contact the Rebuild GP team by emailing hello@rebuildgp.co.uk.
General election: Write to your parliamentary candidates
With the three main political party’s publishing their manifestos last week, it is vital to connect with as many local candidates as possible to encourage them to write to their party leaders to ensure that general practice is at the forefront of their work after the general election.
💡Why is this important?
We are now less than three weeks away from the general election. Now is a vital time to connect with those who could very soon be entering Parliament to encourage them to advocate for general practice if elected.
By galvanising groups of determined GPs, like yourselves, and encouraging you all to email your local PPC using the template below, we work to grab their attention. The PPC will notice the themed emails under the Rebuild General Practice campaign umbrella, and the more emails the PPC receives, the better, as this will highlight just how important rebuilding general practice is to their constituents. With constituent needs a top priority, the PPC will be encouraged to act upon this issue if elected.
💻 How do I get involved?
✍️ Write to your PPCs - email templates and guidance linked.
🤳 Share our social media posts - post directly to X/Twitter here, or find a template post for other social media here.
📰 Write to your local newspaper editor to inform them of this action - email template here.
🔁 Encourage your colleagues to do the same by sharing these materials.
🔊I got a response - who should I tell?
If you receive a response from your local candidate we would love to hear about it. Please let us know by emailing hello@rebuildgp.co.uk. This is immensely helpful to use as a campaign, to know who is passionate about general practice and build upon our strong political network when the new Parliament sits.
📢 Ask friends and colleagues to join
Please share this information with GP and practice staff colleagues and friends.
Share a link to this page on WhatsApp or tweet the below:
Retweet our Rebuild GP post.
General election: Attending a local election hustings
With the general election fast approaching we are ensuring GP voices up and down the country are heard by our political leaders and candidates. General practice must be at the forefront of politicians’ minds during the election campaign and into the new Government.
Rebuild GP election campaign activations are designed to be quick and easy for anyone to do.
Attending a local husting
👥 What is a hustings?
A hustings is a panel discussion where election candidates share their policies and answer questions from the audience, providing voters with an opportunity to hear the views of candidates.
Hustings include candidates from all major parties standing in your local area and are often organised by community organisations.
🤝Why attend?
Hustings are a chance to have your voice heard by the people who could become your MP, as well as a chance to bring an issue to their attention and build a relationship with your future representative.
They are a great opportunity to let your local politicians know about the struggles of general practice.
🌁 Finding a hustings
To find a hustings event in your local area, google ‘[area name], general election husting, 2024’. You could also search on Eventbrite.
❓Suggested questions
Here are a few questions you could ask your candidates:
GPs across the UK are leaving the profession due to the immense pressures in general practice. How will you advocate for a fully funded and rapid roll out of a national general practice retention programme which would incentivise GPs and trainees to remain in the profession?
General practice carries out over 90% of patient care on a fraction of the NHS budget. How will you guarantee to increase the percentage of NHS funding to primary care with at least an 8.7% uplift (to match 2019/2020 funding), and increase the share of funding allocated to general practice to reflect the increasing proportion of care it delivers?
Currently, funding to general practice is ringfenced for certain roles and GPs do not have the autonomy to hire and retain staff according to the needs of their practice and patients. How will you ensure that GPs have the autonomy to allocate resources according to need?
💻 After the hustings
If you had the opportunity to ask your question and had responses from the candidates, email us on hello@bbpartners.co.uk to let us know what they said!
This will help us learn about different candidates' priorities and who might be interested in engaging with the campaign and supporting our asks of Government.
📢 Ask friends and colleagues to join you
Please share this information with GP and practice staff colleagues and friends.
Share a link to this page on WhatsApp and social media.
Everything you need to share the open letter far and wide is available here. A text-only version of the letter is available here.
About the open letter
The Rebuild General Practice campaign – a GP grassroots led campaign group calling for a proper long-term plan to rebuild general practice – has written an open letter to political and party leaders.
The letter is urging leaders to respond to the campaign’s call to make general practice a political priority. The three core asks of the campaign: GP retention, fairer funding, and greater autonomy – are highlighted to show the areas that require their immediate focus.
The letter has been signed by the majority of LMCs across England, Scotland, and Wales. With the general election now only weeks away, it is vital we get the letter in front of as many politicians as possible, to influence them ahead of the election and to ensure general practice is at the forefront of their minds.
How to get involved
Everything you need to share the Rebuild General Practice open letter far and wide is in this document. It includes materials targeting:
Social media followers
Friends and colleagues in group chats
Patients and colleagues in LMC/surgery newsletters and websites
Local media (including a press release template)
Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) (including a letter template)
We know the pressure both GPs and patients are under so we have made this as easy as possible for you. The templates in this toolkit should minimise the work required and we are on hand to help and support via hello@rebuildgp.co.uk.
💥 This is an exciting moment. Now is the time to ramp up the political pressure on behalf of Rebuild General Practice.
⏱️ The general election has been called. We have just weeks before a Government enters Downing Street with a new agenda.
💪 So, we’re asking GPs to write to your Propsective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) en masse, and make as much noise as possible on social media and in local media.
⏩ We want to ensure that all major parties across England, Scotland, and Wales have a plan to address the crisis in general practice and are committed to doing so once either party comes to power.
How to get involved
🗺️ Using this website, select your region and constituency and it will tell you who your local Prospective Parliamentary Candidates are. If you click on their profile, it will provide their contact details.
✍️ Write to your PPCs - email templates linked.
🤳 Share our social media posts - post directly to X/Twitter here, or find a template post for other social media here.
📰 Write to your local newspaper editor to inform them of this action - email template here.
🔁 Encourage your colleagues to do the same by sharing these materials.
Follow us on X/Twitter to keep up to date on the campaign: @RebuildGP
General enquiries: hello@rebuildgp.co.uk
Press enquiries: press@rebuildgp.co.uk