A STANMORE doctor met with politicians in Westminster last week to discuss the “unprecedented pressure” put upon GPs in the area.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a GP at the Honeypot Medical Centre in Stanmore and chair of the British Medical Association GP committee, was invited on May 25 to attend afternoon tea as part of the BMA’s campaign Urgent Prescription for General Practice.

The event offered GPs across the country the opportunity to discuss the services they provide within their communities, and the challenges which they face as a result.

The nationwide campaign will then seek to raise these issues with the government, and offer the solutions which it feels are necessary.

Dr Nagpaul spoke out about the struggles of being a GP in the current climate.

He said: “GPs across Middlesex and the rest of the UK are facing unprecedented pressure, desperately trying to deliver effective patient care at a time when we are thousands of GPs short with completely inadequate resources to meet increasing demand, especially from our ageing population and care moving out of hospital into the community.

“Worryingly, nine in 10 GPs have told the BMA that their workload has negatively impacted on the quality of care that they give to their patients, almost one in 10 GP practices across the country believe they are financially unsustainable, and around a third of GPs intend to retire in the next five years.”

As part of the campaign, the GP Committee drew up its own rescue plan, Responsive, Safe and Sustainable: Our Urgent Prescription for General Practice.

This included proposals such as introducing a national standard for the maximum number of patients that healthcare professionals can deal with per day.