Last year, the government revealed its plan to provide an extra 5000 GPs nationwide by 2020. At the same time, a ‘turnaround package’ of an additional £500 million to help struggling GP surgeries was announced.
However, a recent investigation by Pulse magazine has revealed that, in fact, 58 GP practices closed in 2016, forcing approximately 265,000 patients to have to find a new surgery.
Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, drew attention to this developing crisis last summer when he described the problems caused by falling numbers of GPs per patient alongside the impact of increasing numbers of patients being transferred out of hospitals. Practices have been finding it increasingly difficult to recruit new staff or locums.
Of course, there has been widespread reporting of the crisis in hospitals over this winter and a reduction in the number of GPs will only add to this problem in the long-term.
According to Pulse magazine, Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the GP Committee, commented that “a decade of underinvestment, and failure by successive governments to take the growing workload and workforce crisis seriously, has led to this situation.”
The effects on patients have meant a loss of continuity in care and contact as well as, in many cases, increased travel times to see a GP.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs commented, “This has serious consequences for patient safety and the well-being of hard-working family doctors.”
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