GPC - New GPs' chairman – 19 July

Dr Laurence Buckman is the new chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee. He was elected for a three year period at today’s (19/07/07) meeting of the General Practitioners Committee (GPC) from a field of six candidates.

His election follows a vacancy arising when the former GPC chairman, Dr Hamish Meldrum, became the new chairman of BMA Council.

Dr Buckman is a single handed practitioner in north London working in a corporate group of seven GPs. He has been a member of the GPC since 1991 and a GPC negotiator since 1997. For the past three years he has also been the committee's deputy chairman.

On being elected as GPC chairman he said: “I feel honoured and determined. I want to give GPs back hope. We all remember what made us want to do the job in the first place and what made it feel good to be a GP. I believe we can restore that feeling and can make things be and feel better.”

New Deputy Chairman
The new Deputy Chairman of GPC is Dr Richard Vautrey. He is a GP in Leeds and has been a GPC Negotiator for the past three years and a member of the committee since 2001. He said: “It’s a great privilege to be able to serve both the GPC and the profession in this capacity. There are huge challenges ahead for all of us, but I am sure we have a team which will be more than up to the task of representing the profession.”

New Negotiator
A new member of the GPC’s negotiating team was also elected today. He is Dr Chaand Nagpaul, a GP in Stanmore, Middlesex. Dr Nagpaul has been a member of the GPC since 1996 and chairman of the Commissioning and Service Development sub-committee (as now is) for three years. He has been elected as Negotiator for a period of three years.

Dr Nagpaul said: “I feel very privileged having the opportunity to contribute to the protection and strengthening of general practice at this vital juncture.”

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