Beyond A Radical Practice: A Bright Future for Primary Care?

GPs Katy Gardner, Iona Heath and Nadja Van Ginneken, with host, former BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Roger Phillips, discuss the ever-shifting role of general practice and primary care.

Primary care has changed hugely in the last 40 years, mostly, but not always, for the better. Princes Park Health Centre in Liverpool foreshadowed many improvements: engaging with patients as partners, being advocates, implementing evidence-based medicine and prevention.

However, these developments have also had negative consequences, resulting in in primary health care becoming dominated by rules and tick boxes. People have become over medicalised and although IT has helped to make health care safer, it has reduced personal, face-to-face contact, creating potential barriers between people, especially those more vulnerable, and their health care teams. There’s been a reduction in continuity and relationship-based care, a change Dr Phil Whitaker (What is a Doctor? Canongate 2024) refers to as “taxi rank medicine”.

Can we keep the positive developments, restore relationship-based care and have happier patients and GPs? How can we as people/patients/activists help to create a more hopeful future?