One GP for 2,606 people in Calderdale
New analysis has shown that there is on average one GP per 2,038 people across the country, a 5% rise since 2015.
Calderdale has one of the highest numbers of inhabitants per GP at 2,606. That means every doctor has over 2 thousand 5 hundred patients.
New analysis has shown that there is on average one GP per 2,038 people across the country, a 5% rise since 2015.
The Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the analysis, have called on the Government to train more GPs.
In February 2020 the Government announced a drive to recruit an additional 6000 GPs by 2024. That would equate to between 1200-1500 extra doctors in general practice per financial year by the end of 2024.
Despite the promise there are actually now 1,803 fewer fully qualified FTE GPs today than there were in 2015 and between September 2020 and August 2021 the number of GP partners reduced by 918 doctors.
Alongside these long-term trends, GP practices have been at the forefront of the NHS’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak whilst maintaining non-COVID care for patients throughout.
Dr Brian McGregor, from Leeds, has warned the abuse staff are facing is leading to some leaving the profession and discouraging medical students from specialising in general practice.
He said:
"There is an anxiety and a fear that it is going to escalate when a patient becomes disruption. They can be intimidating and in your face and your only defences is to just speak calmly to them."
"The morale is at the lowest I've seen in 30 years of being a GP. We are training lots of doctors and they're not choosing to come into general practice.
"If it really was so well paid, such light work and so easy to do, then why are these intelligent people choosing to do something else?
"Exactly why there is this campaign of hate, which is promoted by some of our politicians, I don't know."