It took until day 112 of GP's campaign but yesterday the Conservatives finally gave it their backing and entered the Valuing General Practice house.
GP had an exclusive 40-minute chat with shadow health secretary for the Conservatives Andrew Lansley at Portcullis House, Westminster and you can read the full piece in our 5 September edition.
England's potential next health secretary covered such topics as the differences between Conservative and Labour on general practice issues, the role of the private sector in the NHS under the Tories, where the Conservatives and BMA disagree on health policy and the importance of general practice under a David Cameron-led administration.
It really was enlightening stuff and, if the polls are to be believed, it's a fascinating, crystal ball-look into the future and what waits in store for GPs post a 2010 election. Or not. You decide.
Bafflingly, security in Portcullis House banned our photographer from taking any more pictures of Mr Lansley mid-shoot, so forgive us if the accompanying pictures are not as magnificent as usual.
Our snapper did, however, put his unexpected spare time to good use and managed to spot (although, sadly not on camera!) a rather sunburnt-looking shadow foreign secretary William Hague ambling about Portcullis House. It was like an episode of The Politics Show in there. Oblivious to the GP interviewing team, broadcaster, writer, campaigner and former MP Oona King had pitched up at a neighbouring table.
Back to reality and the Valuing General Practice survey and petition closed on Tuesday. Thank you to the 3,000-plus patients and almost 300 GPs who have backed it so far.
We're currently collating the evidence about the value of general practice generated by the campaign and will publish the results in an early September edition of GP.
One of the campaign survey questions was whether prime minister Gordon Brown should make a statement valuing general practice. What do you think? Perhaps we should put a call in to Number 10 and lay down the challenge?
neil.durham@haymarket.com