GP employment crisis is ‘simply unacceptable’, says College Chair

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, responds to the latest joint Cogora and Rebuild General Practice report on GP workforce. 

Professor Hawthorne said: “The troubling findings of this report sadly come as little surprise, and tally with what the College has heard from members. 

“Despite the frustration of both GPs and patients over long waiting times, practices are finding themselves unable to recruit the GPs they need, and GPs are reporting not being able to find appropriate work. This makes no sense. While there may be a range of reasons for this at practice-level, at the heart of this crisis is the chronic underfunding and poor workforce planning that have plagued general practice for decades. The efforts made to address this by freeing-up ARRS funding to employ GPs has been positive, but it is just a first step in resolving an endemic issue – and we agree with the recommendation in this report, that core funding that would allow practices to spend money in ways that best serve their local populations, should be increased.

“As is often the case, this report also makes clear that patients living in deprived communities, and the practices working hard to care for them, are the hardest hit. On average, GPs in deprived areas are already responsible for 2,450 patients – over 300 more patients than GPs in more affluent areas – and this disparity will only intensify if employment difficulties persist and if our funding streams are not reviewed and more funding channelled to areas of greatest need.

“We need to see the Government tackle the employment crisis in general practice head on. This not only means introducing measures to allow practices to recruit the GPs they need but placing a greater focus on retention, improving the situation for frontline GPs and supporting those who are working in areas of greater deprivation. It is simply unacceptable that practices are unable to recruit the GPs they need when so many patients are crying out for our services.”

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.