A quarter of GP practices 'could close' because of workload pressures
The Royal College of GPs has launched a new report highlighting the current workload and workforce pressures facing GPs.
Last updated 11th Mar 2023
General practice is 'on a cliff-edge' with one in four practices at risk of closing, warns the Royal College of GPs as it launches a new report highlighting the current workload and workforce pressures facing GPs.
GPs and their hard-working staff carried out 4.6 million (9%) more appointments in December 2022 and January 2023 compared to in 2019, however, the number of fully qualified full-time-equivalent GPs has dropped by 843 in the same period.
The Royal College has published Fit for the Future: GP Pressures Report 2023, setting out recommendations for Government to tackle the workforce and workload crisis in general practice, and support GPs and their teams to meet the healthcare challenges of the 21st century.
Based on a survey of more than 2,600 GPs and other practice team members from across the UK, the College’s new report acts as a snapshot of what frontline staff have faced during one of the most difficult winters experienced in the NHS, and what they think needs to happen to make general practice more sustainable. Respondents describe a profession in crisis, with unmanageable workload and workforce pressures fuelling an exodus of fully qualified GPs.
As a result, more than a quarter (26.7%) of respondents said they feared their practice would be forced to close, with almost 90% citing unmanageable workload pressures as a reason; while 65% said it was because of a GP partner leaving and 63% said it was because of a shortage of salaried GPs.
Grant Ingrams is the chair of Rutland's Local Medical Committee. He says the number of GPs in Leicestershire and Rutland has continued to decrease year after year:
"If you look at what this size GP should be looking after, that actually means that about a quarter of million people within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, in effect, do not have a GP.
"This cannot be allowed to continue. This government seems to be hellbent on destroying general practice."