“Too many GPs tell people that they will never work again,” were my words back in 2005. Barely a month as work and pensions secretary and I was troubled by a system better at managing people once they had fallen out of work than stopping them dropping out in the first place.

Since then, I married a GP (now retired) and witnessed improvements in how job centres and primary care practices work together. Yet, as so often, I have seen “the tide going out” once more. 

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