500 GP practices ‘facing retirement crisis’
Thousands of patients could be without a GP as recruitment numbers lag far behind demand – and upcoming retirements won’t help either.
A “workforce crisis” could leave thousands of patients without a GP as a large number of doctors near retirement, according to a new report.
At about 600 practices across the UK, including 543 in England, 90 per cent of GPs are over the age of 60, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners.
The Royal College has warned that “drastic action” is needed to find medics to replace retiring GPs, or patients could be left without a GP or be forced to travel miles to their nearest practice.
This Prime Minister has presided over a crisis in general practice and collapse in GP morale Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham
The royal College said the number of unfilled GP posts had quadrupled in the last three years, from 2.1 per cent in 2010 to 7.9 per cent in 2013.
But applications for GP training are estimated to have dropped by about 15 per cent.
There need to be around 40,000 GPs in England to cope with demand but there are only around 32,000, said the Royal College.
Dr Maureen Baker, chairwoman of the Royal College, will tell the college’s annual conference in Liverpool that the budget for general practices needs to be increased to help meet this workforce gap.
Comparing general practice to the “walls of a dam” that prevents the rest of the NHS being flooded, Dr Baker will say: “So far, much of the damage to the dam wall has been hidden from the public – they see the flooding downstream in accident and emergency departments and in hospital pressures.
“But they haven’t been aware that GPs, nurses and practice teams have been absorbing that pressure by trying to do more and more with less and less.
“But if we let that situation continue, we will see whole chunks of the dam fall apart when practices have to shut their doors.”
Big promises
In his Tory conference speech, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to give everyone in the UK access to their GP services seven days a week by 2020.
But shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said the analysis from the Royal College “completely undermines David Cameron’s party conference rhetoric”.
“The truth is that this Prime Minister has presided over a crisis in general practice and collapse in GP morale,” he added.
“People are already struggling to get GP appointments and these figures suggest things are about to get even worse, not better, if hundreds of surgeries close for good.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “We know GPs are under pressure, which is why we’re increasing trainees so that GP numbers continue to grow faster than the population and will train 10,000 more primary and community health and care staff by 2020, including 5,000 more GPs.
“There are already 1,000 more GPs than in 2010 and we’re making it easier for GPs to return to the profession.”