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Express
February 3, 2014
Last night health leaders warned traditional general practice will “disappear” as patients in some areas are unable to access a doctor.
Clare Gerada, former chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “Unless this is addressed the tradition of family medicine, which is the relationship between a doctor and his patients from cradle to grave, will disappear in some areas.”
A joint investigation carried out by the Sunday Express and doctors’ magazine Pulse highlights the scale of the problem, with one permanent GP to 8,000 residents in one area. This is at least five times the acceptable upper level.
The research also shows 75 practices had more than 5,000 patients per permanent GP and 149 had 4,000-plus. GP leaders claim rising numbers of family doctors are leaving the profession due to high workloads and lack of support.
This means many family doctors are unable to see patients and surgeries are becoming reliant on expensive locums to provide cover. The shortages have left some practices paying agencies up to £160 an hour for locum shifts.
Their use has been criticised after some patients were given the wrong treatment by overseas locum doctors. Six years ago David Gray, 70, of Manea, Cambridgeshire, died after Daniel Ubani, from Germany, who was working as a locum GP, gave him 10 times the recommended amount of diamorphine.
