Britain’s GP surgeries in crisis as patients face long waits for an appointment

RECORD numbers of patients are being forced to scrap it out for an appointment with their GP.

A Sunday Post investigation has revealed the number of doctors’ practices has fallen to its lowest level on record while there has been a big rise in people registering with a doctor.

Our probe found there is now an average of just one GPs’ surgery for every 5,673 patients, compared with one for every 5,176 patients a decade ago.

It means patients are waiting in longer queues than ever before to try to get an appointment.

Our wide-ranging investigation into the state of general practice also revealed:

Some family doctors are refusing to take new patients because of chronic staffing shortages.

GPs struggling to cope with demand are quietly reducing their patient catchment areas.

The number of elderly patients with complex health problems is soaring.

Practices are being forced to close at lunchtime due to a lack of staff.

The number of GPs hitting retirement age is rising fast.

Waiting lists for appointments in some parts of the country are more than three weeks.

Last night worried experts said they feared for the future of general practice.

Former GP Dr Jean Turner, of Scotland Patients Association, said: “The goodwill of doctors is what’s holding general practice services and much of the NHS together.

“It is hard to say to young doctors they’ve got to go and work 12 or 14-hour days.

“It is a heavy workload in general practice and it takes a lot of workforce planning to be a GP and I’m not sure politicians understand that.”

Posing as patients, our reporters called more than 100 surgeries nationwide to ask a range of questions about appointment availability.

One in 16 said they were full and had stopped taking on new patients.

Of those, the majority were unable to say when their lists would be reopened.

In one case the practice receptionist pointed our reporter to a surgery 20 minutes away by bus.

Others admitted reducing their catchment area to limit the number of people eligible to register.

One in three of the surgeries we looked at did not have the resources to stay open at lunchtime.

The investigation comes in the wake of our earlier probe that revealed patients are waiting more than three weeks for appointments.

Scottish Labour’s shadow public health minister Dr Richard Simpson, a GP with more than 30 years’ experience, said: “My own research has shown that around two million patients in Scotland are served by under-staffed and under-resourced practices.

“I am not surprised that The Sunday Post has uncovered real problems with new patient registration.

“These will ultimately have a knock-on effect on the rest of our NHS as patients turn to hospitals because they cannot get a straightforward appointment with a GP.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Government figures have revealed in 2004 there were 5.37 million patients split among 1,038 surgeries equivalent to 5,176 patients per surgery.

But a decade later, in 2014, there were 5.56 million patients fighting it out for appointments at just 987 surgeries, meaning that there were 5,673 patients for every practice.

Among the swollen patient lists are increasing numbers of pensioners, often with complex health needs, who require extra care.

In 2014, 962,351 patients registered at GP practices were over 65, equivalent to 17% of all registered patients in Scotland.

There are currently almost 100 vacant GP posts and Dr Carey Lunan of the Royal College of GPs Scotland, said under-staffed practices were enduring “unsustainable” workloads which meant medics were struggling to give patients the care they deserved.

She said: “A satisfactory solution has to be found to the current state of affairs and that solution must begin with the Scottish Government getting fully behind general practice with a firm commitment to appropriate, long-term funding which would attract more GP trainees into the profession, continue to support GPs returning to the profession and encourage GPs to remain in the profession.”

Last week it was revealed 42 surgeries have been taken over by health boards an emergency measure taken when practices can no longer cope.

Many are struggling to recruit and retain enough GPs to meet the soaring demand, with unacceptable workloads and intense pressure blamed for discouraging young medics.

But our probe has found new evidence that an increasing reliance on older GPs is storing up an even bigger recruitment crisis, with hundreds nearing retirement age.

Over the last decade the total number of GPs working in practices, whether full or part-time, increased 10% from 4,456 in 2004 to 4,918 in 2014.

However, those aged over 55 and nearing retirement soared by 43% over the same period, from 601 to 860.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: “It’s been evident for some time that there is an issue with access to GPs and that is only going to get worse.

“This is something the Scottish Government has been warned about and these figures should intensify that focus.

“We need GP practices to be more flexible in their opening times, and more prepared to see patients at weekends and late at night.”

Yesterday Dr Philip Gaskell, of Allan Park Medical Practice in Stirling, sparked controversy by claiming male trainee GPs should be favoured over women.

He argued there are already more women in the profession and they were more likely to work part-time or leave to have a baby and never come back.

The Scottish Government said it is working with the Scottish GP Committee (SGPC) to review the contract in Scotland over the next two years.