Clare Gerada to step down as UK RCGP chair

The UK's Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has announced that Dr Clare Gerada will step down as chair on November 2013 to be replaced by Dr Maureen Baker.

Dr Gerada (pictured right) has been chair of the body since November 2010, and has become a prominent voice in UK healthcare during a spell in charge that has seen controversial NHS reforms from the UK government passed and subsequently implemented.

She has not been afraid to criticise the reforms and their impact on GPs in England and Wales, who are set to take over commissioning duties as part of Clinical Commissioning Groups.

“The college has made its opposition to the Bill well known,” she said at the time of the Bill's passing, “but we have also been very clear on the distinction between the Bill in isolation, and the importance of the role of GPs in the planning and delivery of local services.”

Her replacement Dr Baker beat off competition from Dr Steve Mowle, and will hold the position for three years.

She has been a GP since 1985 and is currently based in Lincoln.

Dr Baker has been heavily involved with the RCGP for several years, including serving as honorary secretary from 1999 to 2009. She is also a member of the RCGP trustee board and is the current lead for emergency planning and preparedness, handling UK GP's reaction to the 2009 influenza pandemic.

She said: "I am delighted and honoured to be elected to such an important role at the RCGP. Later this year the NHS will celebrate its 65th anniversary in a landscape of financial austerity and an environment more complex and challenging than at any time in its history.

“I am more convinced than ever that GPs, and their professional body, have a crucial role to play in helping the NHS tackle the challenges of the years ahead.”