Falling GP numbers

Waiting to see your doctor? You're not alone!

The latest research conducted by the Liberal Democrats provides some truly shocking statistics:

• A quarter of people wanting to see their GP this February had to wait over a week for their appointment (that's over six million people).
• In the same month, there were fewer same-day appointments than the previous month - a shocking half million fewer.

This shows the impact that years of Conservative neglect, cuts, and broken promises have had on the front line of health services. The British Medical Association has stated, " Despite there being 1,565 fewer fully qualified FTE GPs today than there were in 2015, each practice has on average 2,222 more patients than in 2015." Is it any wonder that it's hard to get an appointment?

Although the Johnson government made repeated promises to increase the number of GPs in England by 6,000 by 2025, the sad truth is that the number of GPs has actually fallen between September 2015 and 2021. True, there is an increase in the number of doctors training for general practice, but the number of experienced GPs has fallen.

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson, has said,

"The Conservatives have broken their promise to recruit more GPs, leaving millions of people struggling to get an appointment when they need one. Desperate people are turning up at A&E instead, piling pressure on the NHS at a time it can least afford it.

"Local health services are suffering after years of neglect under this government which has driven them into the ground.

"The local elections in May are a chance to send Boris Johnson a message that people are fed up with broken promises and being taken for granted. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats will help elect local champions who listen to their communities and stand up for our health services.

"We are calling for a proper plan to recruit the GPs the country desperately needs and prevent so many doctors leaving or retiring early."

And the reasons for the early leaving? COVID has obviously had an impact: the extra work; coping with uncertainty; concern over getting ill oneself or taking COVID to the family, and; insufficient PPE.

It's a vicious circle - the loss of GPs drives further loss. If you're having to work harder because others have left, it puts pressure on you to quit as well. Because of the complicated aspects of pension limits, of which the Government has been repeatedly warned but has chosen not to act, for many older GPs there is virtually no financial advantage in continuing to work. There's also the government's setting of unrealistic targets and nasty briefing against GPs.

The Liberal Democrats have demanded an urgent recruitment plan. It should be noted that the House of Lords had to insert an amendment into the Health and Care Bill to require the regular publication of NHS and social care workforce projections. Sadly, though if past performance is any indicator, the Tory sheep in the Commons will take it out again at the instigation of the Johnson government. It couldn't be, could it, that the Conservatives are setting the NHS up to fail?

Remember, we'll be better off without the Conservatives. Send a message to them that they can't ignore in these local elections in May.

Footnote: The same day this was written, the Tory sheep did indeed take the amendment out - despite exhortations from some conservative MPs including, notably, Jeremy Hunt