Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the RCGP, said there were now 1,500 fewer qualified full-time equivalent GPs than there were five years ago, leaving staff “working to their absolute limits”. The figures showed 25.9 million appointments in June, down from 27.6 million consultations in May, down from 24.7 million in the month before the first lockdown. The data shows that more than 44 percent were same-day appointments.
The situation is likely to worsen
Dr Marshall said: “Working at this intensity is unsustainable and unsafe for both patients and staff. “A burned-out physician is unable to practice safely or provide the high-quality care and services he or she is trained to provide to patients. This leads to physicians and other members of our teams becoming burned out and having to evaluate their future in their general practice job, in some cases leaving the profession earlier than planned and in others reducing their contractual working hours to make the job more sustainable. “However, working ‘part-time’ in general practice often means working what would normally be considered full-time or more – and will likely involve many hours of clerical work on top of patient appointments.” He said the “sad reality” was that the situation was likely to get worse, with surveys suggesting almost 19,000 GPs could leave the profession within five years. The RCGP is calling for an increase in funding for GPs and a reduction in red tape. The figures, published by NHS Digital on Thursday, also show that the total number of qualified GPs in England fell from 27,912 in June 2017 to 26,859 in June 2022 – a fall of 4 per cent. All figures are based on the number of full-time equivalent positions in the GP workforce and do not include trainees or jobs. Figures show the NHS is increasingly reliant on doctors over 60 as the number of 50-year-olds falls as increasing numbers seek early retirement. While the number of GPs aged 50 to 59 fell from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, the number aged 60 and over fell from eight to 10 per cent. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Strengthening our workforce is essential to the health of the nation, which is why we are focusing on recruiting and retaining those working in general practice – and we have seen almost 1,500 more full-time GP equivalents overall practice in June 2022 compared to June 2019. “There are record numbers of GPs training and we have increased the number of funded medical school places by 25% over three years to 2020 and we will start to see the first wave of these students entering institute training from this year.”
