No quick fix to get us off the bottom of this table

Anyone who has ever struggled to get an appointment with their GP in Portsmouth now knows the reason why: There are just not enough doctors to go around.

New data from healthcare charity The Nuffield Trust reveals that patients outnumber practising GPs in the Portsmouth area by a ratio of nearly 2,500-to-one.

It puts us in the unenviable position of bottom of the league table of doctors per head of population.

Hull is only slightly better off, with 2,481 patients for every GP, while Liverpool performs best nationally with a GP for every 1,333 patients. Even that seems a heavy caseload for overworked medics.

It comes as demand for doctors’ appointments has risen sharply over the course of the pandemic, according to Linda Stead, operations director for the GP-led Portsmouth Primary Care Alliance, which coordinates GP surgeries’ out of hours and home-visiting services.

People may have let medical worries slide during the pandemic while the NHS was under such heavy pressure.

But now coronavirus has receded many need advice or treatment and find they cannot get to see a doctor.

Increasingly, if you or a family member, even babies, are taken ill, especially out of surgery hours, the NHS will tell you the first recourse is to call 111 or go to its 111 website for help.

We look back fondly to the nostalgic old days of Doctor Finlay’s Casebook when your friendly local doctor would be happy to pop round to your house at any time of the day or night, should the need arise.

Urgent action is needed to recruit more doctors, and to make general practice an attractive career proposition for young people.

It is a long-term problem, and there is no quick fix, but one way or another, we have to work our way up that league table.