Ex-Conservative health secretary hits out at Javid’s GP ‘rescue’ plan

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has criticised Sajid Javid’s £250 million plans to help GP services over the coming winter months.

The MP for South West Surrey, now chair of the House of Commons health committee, has blasted the measures as inadequate.

In a Twitter thread, he said the government were correct to “address crisis in this sector. Some good ideas including a new NHS covenant modeled on the military and more transparency about performance.”

He went on: “BUT, as someone who tried & failed to get 5000 more GPs into the system, I don’t think this package will turn the tide. We got 000s more graduates into GP surgeries, but we didn’t make progress because experienced GPs were retiring/going part time faster than new trainees arrived.”

He argued that Mr Javid must work towards “overhauling broken workforce planning with an independent system – modelled on something like the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] – to ensure transparent, public projection are made about the number of clinicians we should be training in every specialty.”

The health secretary faced sharp criticisms from the medical community earlier today, after he pulled out of an address to the Royal College of GPs’ annual conference at the last minute.