"Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said surgeries were desperate to hire more doctors to meet soaring demand for care but could not afford to do so because of a lack of core funding. Exhausted family doctors have been working completely unsafe hours because their surgeries did not have the cash to recruit new staff or replace those quitting, increasing the risk of serious errors or deadly conditions being missed, she said."
"A fully qualified full-time GP in England is now responsible for 2,241 patients on average, a rise of 304 patients each (16%) in 10 years, Hawthorne said. She said: The number of patients per GP is rising higher and higher, while our clinical work has become more complex with our ageing population. We don't have the workforce to manage this safely or give the continuity of care that we know benefits patients."
General practice faces a dangerous shortage of medics and chronic underfunding that prevent surgeries from hiring enough staff to meet soaring demand. Exhausted GPs are working unsafe hours, increasing the risk of serious errors and missed conditions. Average patient lists per full-time GP have risen to 2,241, a 16% increase over ten years, while clinical complexity rises with an ageing population. Practice managers report widespread need to recruit more GPs but cite lack of core funding as a barrier. The workforce shortfall, rising workload, and funding constraints have created unsustainable workloads and compromised patient safety.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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