2 October 2014
Last updated at 07:30
Hundreds of GP practices are at risk of closure because of the ageing workforce, doctors’ leaders say.
An analysis by the Royal College of GPs has identified 543 GP practices out of the 8,000 in England it believes could be forced to shut in the next year.
They all have more than 90% of their doctors aged over 60 – the average retirement age is 59.
The issue will be debated at the College’s annual conference, which gets under way in Liverpool on Thursday.
It comes just two days after ministers unveiled ambitious plans to create seven-day GP services.
The proposals – set out during the Conservative Party conference – included promises of extra money to ensure access during the whole week by 2020.
But the central theme of the RCGP conference will be the pressures GPs are facing now, just providing the current level of services.
RCGP chair Dr Maureen Baker said extra investment was needed just to keep the system afloat – never mind expanding it.
She said the amount spent on GPs as a proportion of the NHS budget had been falling in recent years, and needed to increase from the current “historic low†of just over 8% to 11% by 2017.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “We do have a workforce crisis in general practice.
“We’ve been losing GPs, we are losing GPs and we’re not recruiting enough doctors into the profession.â€
To make her point, Dr Baker will unveil research the College has carried out showing the growing risk of the ageing workforce, based on data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre and Health Education England.
Comparing general practice to the “walls of a dam†that prevents the rest of the NHS being flooded, Dr Baker said: “So far much of the damage to the dam wall has been hidden from the public – they see the flooding downstream in AE departments and in hospital pressures – but they haven’t been aware that GPs, nurses and practice teams have been absorbing that pressure by trying to do more and more with less and less.
“But if we let that situation continue we will see whole chunks of the dam fall apart when practices have to shut their doors.â€
She described the situation as “shockingâ€.
But the Department of Health said it was investing in new GPs. It said the number of GP training places was rising. Last year there were just over 2,700, but by 2016 it will hit 3,250 a year.
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