Fall in fully trained GPs as former county doctor warns profession does not feel 'appreciated'

England saw the biggest year-on-year fall in more than three years in fully qualified GPs, despite the Government's 2019 manifesto pledge to recruit 6,000 more GPs by 2025.

It comes as a former Shropshire GP, who only retired in December, has warned the profession – and its patients – will continue to struggle unless more is done to make the job more attractive.

Dr Mary McCarthy retired from her position at Belvidere Medical Practice in Shrewsbury at the end of last year, but is still a member of the British Medical Association (BMA) and the European Union of Medical Practitioners – of which she was vice president from 2017 to 2020.

She said pay for GPs needed to be addressed in an effort to bring more people into the profession, in turn reducing hours and relieving the stress on those currently trying to cope with huge levels of demand.

She warned that without improvements doctors would walk away, and said that despite it being "the best job in the world", if she were starting now she would not want to work in the UK.

It comes as the BMA has said the continued decline in fully trained GPs – which means there are now more than 1,900 full-time equivalent fewer doctors than in 2015 – is "alarming", and urged the Government to take the situation seriously.

NHS Digital figures show there were 296 full-time equivalent GPs in the former NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin CCG area in November.

But of these, 52 were in training, meaning just 244 were fully qualified – down from 250 a year earlier.

Nationally, there were 27,400 fully trained GPs in November – down from 27,900 in November 2021 and a decrease of 1.7 per cent, the largest annual fall in more than three years.

Dr McCarthy pointed to a survey of European GPs that had shown that 24 per cent had responded by saying that their workload was "reasonable", with all having a number of factors in common, which are not present in UK practice.

They included patient lists of 1,000 per GP - in the UK it is around 2,500 - appointment slots of at least 20 to 30 minutes, shorter working hours, and seeing around 20 to 30 patients in a day.

She said: "GPs in this country are seeing 40, 50, 60 patients a day.

"No profession sees 40 to 50 cases a day except GPs in the UK and it is dangerous, it is dangerous for the doctors to see that many because they get tired and cross, and it is dangerous for the patients because they are seeing an over-worked and tired doctor."

Dr McCarthy added: "It is not just that we need to train more GPs, we need to make the job more attractive."

She continued: "First get more GPs by valuing that it is a specialised discipline. The UK is one of only four countries that does not recognise GPs as specialists in family medicine. This downgrades them and makes hospital doctors say 'you're just a GP' when in fact being a GP is the most complicated job you can have.

"They need to upgrade the status, and they need to pay them more.

"In Western countries we value things by the amount we pay for them – you assume a cashmere jersey is better than an acrylic jersey because it costs more.

"At the moment hospital doctors are paid between £16 and £24 an hour – my granddaughter's piano teacher earns more than that. It is not fair pricing.

"We need restoration of pay. It is 30 per cent down on ten years ago for GPs and 33 per cent down for consultants."

Dr McCarthy said the state of healthcare was the most difficult it had been during her career.

She said: "It is the worst. It is dreadful. It is just unrelenting, it used to be you could finish a day and feel you have finished a day's work but you no longer feel that.

"And it does feel a bit like a war zone. It feels like a war zone where you do not see any help coming, ever."

She said that UK doctors did not feel valued, with increasing numbers looking to work abroad.

She said: "If you think of your job, you want to be appreciated for what you do and that is what makes you stay, and makes you loyal to your employer. If you are treated badly by your employer, the media, the public then yes, you get fed up and you leave."

"I talk to GPs who have gone to Australia and ask if they would ever consider coming back and they say no."

She added: "They say it is not as relentless, and they all say it is because over there they feel appreciated and that is not something doctors in this country feel."

The BMA has also said the "haemorrhage of GPs from practices in England is alarming".

Dr Kieran Sharrock, GP committee acting chair at BMA England, said: "Despite promises to recruit 5,000 – and then 6,000 – more GPs, the Government has now overseen the loss of the equivalent of more than 1,900 full-time fully qualified GPs in England since 2015.

"That almost a quarter of this loss happened in the last 12 months alone speaks volumes to the intense pressures that practices and staff are under."

Dr Sharrock said many GPs are having to take difficult decisions to reduce their hours or leave the profession altogether to protect their wellbeing as workload demands and financial stresses mount.

"Rather than piling on more pressure, the Government needs to show it is taking this dire workforce situation seriously and encourage more family doctors to stay in the profession when our communities need them most," added Dr Sharrock.

The total number of full-time equivalent GPs across the country rose by 1.2 per cent from 36,200 to 36,600 in the 12 months to November.

This was largely driven by a 10.8 per cent rise in training GPs, from 8,300 to 9,200.

In Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, the number of GPs in the training grade fell from 58 to 52.

The Department for Health and Social Care said it is "incredibly grateful" to GPs for their hard work.

A spokesperson said at least £1.5 billion will be invested to create an additional 50 million appointments by 2024.

"There were nearly 2,300 more doctors working in general practice in September compared to September 2019 and a record-breaking number started training as GPs last year," they added.

This figure includes GPs in training, and the latest data shows the total number of GPs fell by almost 400 from September to November.