I am a GP, I want my patients to be able to get an appointment to see me without having to wait for days and I want enough time to spend with them to sort out their problems when they come.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections (a bit like Ofsted inspections in education) divert me and my colleagues from patient facing care.

We all agree that good standards are important and do not disagree with some regulation, but the NHS is in meltdown, it is grossly underfunded and there is a severe workforce crisis. People struggle to get an appointment with their GP or practice nurse and 90% of GPs have stated that their workload can impact on patient safety. Despite this the CQC have increased their fees to inspect England's GPs from £21.3 million to £37.5 million per year, an increase of £16.2 million which could be spent on more GPs and Practice Nurses. 

The proportion of GDP spent on health care is one of the lowest in Europe and down from 7.3% last year to 6.6% this year. The Government should bring the level of spending on health care up to that of comparable countries who spend 10% of GDP. 

Until they do this we demand that the Government suspend CQC inspections in General Practice, freeing up precious resources to care for patients.