Fit for the Future: A vision for general practice

The Royal College of General Practitioners has published its vision of what general practice will look like in 2030.

Fit for the Future describes a future where GP consultations will be at least 15 minutes, allowing GPs to deliver truly holistic care to their patients, considering all the physical, psychological and social factors potentially impacting on their health.

It predicts that GP practices will evolve into ‘wellbeing hubs’ with expanded teams offering a wider range of services, both clinical and non-clinical – and that access will increasingly be via digital and video channels. GP teams will include established nursing and pharmacy roles, but also emerging roles, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, link workers, dieticians and health coaches. And GPs will no longer work in isolation – practices will work in networks or clusters and make greater use of AI to improve triage systems that assess the severity of a patient’s health needs, enhance diagnosis, flag ‘at risk’ patients, and safely identify the most appropriate care pathway.

The report suggests that GP specialty training must be extended and enhanced, with improved training and
development opportunities for members of the practice team.  And GPs will require leadership and educational skills to support and develop multidisciplinary teams and to train and mentor the next generation of GPs.