The General Practitioners’ Committee (GPC) is urging the new Government to keep their election promises and tackle the crisis of workload and recruitment within the GP profession, otherwise, they warn, the system could collapse.

The GPC has therefore called for NHS England area teams across the country to draw up action plans to support GP practices struggling with ‘skeleton staff and unfilled vacancies’ and facing ‘insurmountable pressure’.

In the run-up to the election, the Conservative party promised to meet NHS England’s demand for an additional £8bn in funding for the health service by 2020 over and above inflation to support the NHS Five Year Forward View recommendations but many GPs are sceptical about manifesto promises and are now looking for solid evidence that this will happen.

Given the result, it is now likely that surgeries will have to be open seven days a week by 2020 and that the named clinician scheme will be extended to all patients. This will not mean that GPs will have to work every day of the week but that patients will be able to access a GP at any time.

This idea was first proposed last year when Prime Minister David Cameron said that he wanted the public to be able to see a GP at a time that “suits them and their family”, with practices open between 08.00 and 20.00, funded by £400m in set up costs over the next five years.

Meanwhile, another Conservative policy for the next five years is for same-day GP appointments for patients aged 75 and over.