The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) attended the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative parties’ 2024 conferences where we engaged with public health stakeholders, ministers, shadow ministers, parliamentarians and others.
Dr Mumtaz Patel (acting as president), Professor Tom Solomon (academic vice president) and members of the Communications, Policy and Research directorate attended meetings and roundtable discussions on key issues facing the RCP including, health inequalities, workforce, sustainability and research.
The RCP engaged on its key policy priorities at each conference, tailoring messaging on:
Reducing health inequalities: The RCP emphasised the need to reduce health inequalities by examining the impact of a broad range of social determinants of health that affect avoidable illness. The RCP sought to highlight the work of the Inequalities in Health Alliance (IHA) – a coalition of over 250 organisations – and its objectives to deliver a cross-government strategy on health inequalities, the enactment of the socio-economic duty, and a child in all policies approach.
Workforce: A central theme in the RCP's discussions was the need for more doctors, the pressing priority of retaining the NHS staff we already have, and the urgent need for meaningful engagement with doctors over next year’s iteration of the Long-Term Workforce Plan.
Sustainability: The RCP published its Green Physicians Toolkit earlier this year that brings together the evidence on the negative impact on health of climate change, and suggests actions that physicians can take in their day-to-day practice. Throughout the conference the RCP raised the public health impacts of climate change and the urgent need to take action.
Clinical research and AI: The RCP highlighted that clinical research is crucial to improving outcomes for patients and that all clinicians can play a role in supporting this, yet many are not given the time or opportunities to do so. In addition, the RCP had a number of useful conversations regarding the use of AI in healthcare and the role of doctors in informing and implementing these new developments.
Liberal Democrat Party Conference
Dr Mumtaz Patel (acting as president) represented the RCP at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton.
Mumtaz attended an NHS providers roundtable focussed on health inequalities, prevention, productivity and improving health outcomes. The roundtable was a private discussion between representatives from Royal Colleges, the BMA, GMC and the Liberal Democrat health policy unit. Mumtaz raised the work of the RCP in advocating for a holistic approach to tackling the social determinants of health, including the RCP’s convening of the Inequalities in Health Alliance. In addition to this the RCP attended panel events on sustainable housing and children’s nutrition.
Daisy Cooper MP (Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson in post at the time of conference) and Sir Ed Davey MP’s (leader of the Liberal Democrats) speeches focussed on the need for further investment in the NHS to tackle waiting lists and the need to ensure that we have a social care system able to support patients and reduce demand. Mumtaz welcomed this call however highlighted that it is vital that we continue to make the case for holistic action across government to reduce health inequalities tackle and all the social determinants of health.
Read Mumtaz’s full statement here.
Labour Party Conference
Dr Mumtaz Patel (acting as president) and Professor Tom Solomon (academic vice president) represented the RCP at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Mumtaz attended a private BMA roundtable to discuss reducing NHS waiting lists. The session was chaired by Professor Phil Banfield of the BMA and in attendance were presidents of royal colleges, NHS Employers, Dr Zubir Ahmed MP and Becky Cooper MP. Mumtaz emphasised that in order to reduce waiting lists a system led and joined up approach is key, focusing on sharing areas of good practice, providing funding to be able to implement these good practices wider and linking them to policy. Mumtaz also emphasised that good IT infrastructure is a key enabler but is currently a barrier and is consistently an issue raised in RCP census surveys for job dissatisfaction. Mumtaz raised the issue of workforce and retention and the impact of shortages on the NHS’ ability to effectively reduce waiting lists. In addition Mumtaz made the point that prevention also needs to be a priority if the issue of workforce is to be truly addressed.
Mumtaz attended a private NHS providers roundtable focussed on health inequalities, prevention, productivity and improving health outcomes. The roundtable was a discussion between representatives from Royal Colleges, the BMA, GMC and Karin Smyth MP (Minister of State for Health). Mumtaz highlighted the work of the IHA, and its call for a cross-government strategy on health inequalities. Mumtaz mentioned workforce issues including the need for better recruitment and retention strategies, and the need for engagement with doctors ahead of the second iteration of the long-term-workforce-plan.
In addition to Mumtaz, Tom and RCP staff engaged with key stakeholders on the RCP’s policy priorities including; Andrew Gwynne MP (Public Health Minister) Simon Opher MP, Peter Lamb MP, Sonia Kumar MP, Gemma Peters (CEO, Macmillan), Jennifer Dixon (CEO, Health Foundation), Phil Banfield (Chair of BMA Council) and Steve Turner (President, RCPCH).
Mumtaz welcomed the Secretary of State, Rt Hon. Wes Streeting MP, highlighting the government’s prevention-based approach to health in his speech and was encouraged by the government taking action to ban junk food advertising to children and the reintroduction of a strengthened Tobacco and Vapes Bill – both of which are issues that the RCP has long campaigned on.
Read Mumtaz’s full statement here.
Conservative Party Conference
Dr Mumtaz Patel (acting as president) represented the RCP at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
Mumtaz attended the final iteration of the NHS providers roundtable at Conservative party conference focussed on health inequalities, prevention, productivity and improving health outcomes. The roundtable was a discussion between representatives from Royal Colleges, the BMA, GMC and Ben Spencer (Shadow Minister for Health and Care. Mumtaz had met two days prior with Ben Spencer and draw on some of that discussion to inform the RCP’s contributions on issues that the conservative party are prioritising, particularly around tobacco and vapes.
This years’ party conference focused on the Conservative party leadership contest and as a result there were no speeches from shadow secretaries of state in the conventional sense. Mumtaz noted that it was disappointing not to hear from candidates about how they would tackle the key challenges facing the NHS but was pleased with the RCP’s engagement with current shadow ministers and public health sector colleagues.
Read Mumtaz’s full statement here.