Professor Mayur Lakhani said these GPs would need to display clinical excellence, a caring approach and leadership.

The Leicestershire GP, who is visiting professor at the University of Leicester Medical School, was speaking at the annual general meeting of the RCGP in London last week.

He told the meeting: 'The uber-GP is the epitome of a doctor. It is the clinician focused on excellence; the caring personal doctor; the doctor who makes things happen through leadership. This is the new dynamic of the triple role, the uber-GP.'

Professor Lakhani, who became the youngest GP to be appointed RCGP chairman in 2004, was giving the prestigious James Mackenzie lecture.

He called for a return to clinical excellence, and hit out at the current focus on minimum standards and the erosion of continuity of care. 'We need to allow GPs to innovate,' he said.