The word 'partner' is a multifaceted one. It refers to husbands, wives and business associates; not to mention sexual partners, dance partners and partners in crime. To us in general practice though, the word has a special meaning. It refers to the foundations on which primary care, the bedrock of the NHS, is built - the partnership model of general practice. Within a month of the NHS being established in 1948, over 90% of the population had registered with a GP. But it wasn't long before we were on rocky ground. In 1950, the first major report into the quality of care in general practice was published. The Collings Report (1950) found the standard of general practice to be 'appalling', citing huge pressures faced by GPs, often in relatively isolated, unsuppoitive environments and in poor working conditions. Collings concluded that 'the overall state of general practice is bad and still deteriorating... despite the efforts of conscientious individual doctors'. Some of these observations, some 68 years later, feel a little too close for comfort. One of the key recommendations widiin die report was that GPs, at that time mostly single-handed independent practitioners, should form into groupings or practice units. This led to the formation of what we now recognise as the partnership model of general practice, not to mention the creation, some years later, of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
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