Doctor crisis deepens as one in eight GP positions go unfilled
BRITAIN’S GP crisis has deepened, with one in eight posts empty as soaring numbers of family doctors take early retirement or move overseas. Figures show that the vacancy level is at its highest ever and has almost doubled in two years.
Some surgeries have closed while others are resorting to hiring nurses and paramedics to fill the empty GP posts.
The shortage is being fuelled by rising numbers of doctors taking early retirement, dropping to part-time hours, quitting altogether or moving overseas.
They are not being replaced because of a lack of newlytrained GPs as student medics opt instead to pursue more glamorous careers as surgeons or specialists.
Although GPs benefited from a contract ten years ago that led to average salaries soaring to more than £100,000 a year – and enabled them to give up out-ofhours work – many are becoming increasingly demoralised.
NHS bosses are desperately trying to fill posts by offering doctors ‘golden hello’ bonuses or to fund relocation costs. But a poll of 690 GPs by Pulse magazine shows the recruitment crisis appears to be intensifying. It found that on average, nearly 12 per cent of all full-time posts were vacant, up from 9.1 per cent last year and 6.4 per cent in 2014.
The survey also found that the average surgery takes longer than six months to hire a senior GP. Some fail to do so and have to close. Dr Catherine Smith, who practises in Cross Hills, West Yorkshire, said of the vacancies: ‘I’m not surprised. We have recruited ANPs (advanced nurse practitioners) and pharmacists to help as there are no GPs.’
Dr Peter Graves, chief executive of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Local Medical Committee, a regional organisation of GPs, said: ‘We are also witnessing extremely high vacancy rates and know that approximately 25 per cent of our practices have been carrying at least one GP vacancy for six months or more.’
He said that five surgeries had ‘resigned’ from their NHS contracts in the past 12 months – meaning they had closed.
Surveys have found that up to a third of GPs plan to retire or quit within five years. Last week NHS England announced a controversial pilot scheme that will see GPs offered £10,000 incentives if they take up posts in understaffed surgeries.
In April it announced a ‘rescue package’ for surgeries that promised them an extra £2.4billion by 2020 – and also urged them to hire more pharmacists.
Patients should try to get a morning appointment or risk seeking an overtired GP who could be prone to mistakes, doctors warned yesterday.
The British Medical Association is calling for a limit to the number of patients GPs see in a day. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘When GPs are trying to listen and care while juggling huge numbers of patients they want to practise safely and not to make a mistake but you are trying to do the impossible.’
‘Massive pressure’