In Feb 2020 in a bid to reverse the stasis in GP workforce numbers the Government announced a drive to recruit an additional 6,000 General Practitioners by 2024.

The Government is failing to deliver on promised recruitment. As of April 2022, we now actually have the equivalent of 1,622 fewer qualified full time GPs compared to 2015.

The growing number of doctors wanting to work part-time has led to huge staff shortages, over 50% are working from home at least some of the time. This trend is set to continue as doctors say working from home has improved their work/life balance. As GPs are responsible for 90% of patient consultations it is no wonder that surgeries burdened with piles of admin and bureaucracy are seeing more GPs burning out and leaving the profession.

Add to this problem more than a quarter of senior consultant physicians are expected to retire in the next three years (many within 18 months) while the majority of trainees entering the NHS (56%), are interested in working part-time. It would seem that part-time and flexible working for GPs will be a necessity in the future to improve both recruitment and retention of staff.

Practices unable to recruit sufficient staff has resulted in an increase in the number of locum GPs and resulted in a reduction in continuity of care and often quality of care. Patient dissatisfaction is high when a patient rarely gets to see the same GP twice.

Navigating online appointments can be hard and many are abandoning plans to ask the GPs advice and either living with the problem or self-medicating. Failure of GPs to see patients in a timely fashion means A & E departments being overloaded. Doctors should see patients and request admissions where necessary. Patients should not be forced to admit themselves to A & E. It is appalling that people are having to take this risk. GPs not seeing patients has led to both misdiagnosis and failure to spot signs of serious illness.

The chronic shortage of GPs is the reason patients are facing long waiting times for appointments.

This problem has not occurred overnight, the Government has been caught ‘sleeping on the job’

The Government has to expand medical school places now to train more doctors, invest in social care and address the inequalities that create and worsen ill-health.

Feb 2015 the UK population was reported to be 65.12 million it is expected to reach 67.44 million by the end of 2022. Unless action is taken to stop the increase in population from illegal immigration, this crisis will go from bad to worse. 

For pity’s sake and the sake of the health of every member of the population in the UK will you please, Boris Johnson get your act together and stop breaking election manifesto promises!

Patricia Mountain

UK Independence Party – Spokeswoman for Health, Social Care and Housing