Focus on the role of general practitioners with a special interest in dermatology

The development of the role for GPs with a special interest (GPwSIs) was outlined as a priority in The NHS Plan.1 The document proposed that, ‘by 2004 … there will be up to 1,000 specialist GPs taking referrals from fellow GPs’. The NHS Improvement Plan,2 published in June 2004, confirmed, ‘We now have around 1,300 GPs with a special interest providing 700,000 procedures in the community, previously done only in hospital’.