GP patients soar 15,000 in single year

THE number of patients at GPs in Birmingham and Solihull has grown by nearly 15,000 in the last year, with doctors warning there was now an “obvious imbalance” between demand and resources.

Figures published by NHS Digital showed there were 1,317,891 people registered with doctors in the area at the start of this month.

That is up from 1,303,028 the same time last year – a rise of 14,863, or 1.1 per cent, in just 12 months.

The spike has been fuelled by an increase in younger people registered with a GP.

In particular, the number of people in their 30s who were signed up with a local doctor rose from 190,001 last November to 194,764 this month.

Doctors said rising patient numbers came at a time when they already faced problems with recruitment – as well as evergrowing expectations in terms of opening hours and services.

The government pledged in 2015 to recruit an extra 5,000 GPs to reduce the workload on stretched staff.

It says it is working hard to train up more family doctors, and is spending £100 million on a recruitment campaign targeting people from overseas.

But data published earlier this year suggested as many as 15.8 per cent of GP posts are currently vacant.

That would imply the government is further away from its recruitment target than before it started.