‘Moaning Minnies’ is how the Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described GPs opposing his rollout of online appointment booking. Originally, that moniker referred to German artillery pieces – and it’s pleasant for a doctor like myself to imagine we still possess that sort of firepower. But Streeting meant that the British Medical Association’s GP committee, which he has accused of undermining the attempt to make primary care more accessible, are a bunch of whining complainers, rather than us ordinary doctors. So, is Streeting right?

General practice, as everyone is painfully aware, is in trouble. Except in a shrinking minority of places, the old model that made it so valuable is dead. Continuity of care, a practice covering its own out-of-hours emergencies, even the basic ability to make an appointment and see a doctor, all of these are vanishing or vanished. This is a tragedy, because when patients and doctors know each other, general practice becomes effective and efficient, GPs are loved and trusted, and their working lives become satisfying – purposeful rather than defensive.

General practice was the jewel of the NHS

The current row between Streeting and the BMA is about making surgeries more responsive to online consultations, messages and bookings. The........

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