A Staffordshire health chief has spoken of his concerns over the lack of GPs to cope with demand.
Dr Paddy Hannigan, clinical director for primary care, said surgeries were dealing with more patients than they were before the pandemic – but with fewer doctors now available.
He explained that national figures showed a decline from an average of 47 GPs per 100,000 people in December 2017, to 44 per 100,000 in December 2021.
Dr Hannigan said Staffordshire’s 142 GP surgeries are now coping with an 11% increase in the number of appointments compared with pre-pandemic levels.
GPs across Staffordshire carried out nearly six million appointments over the past year, with around three quarters face-to-face and the rest online or by telephone.
Dr Hannigan explained part of the reason there is so much difficulty with booking a GP appointment is that fewer people are entering the profession.
“There’s been a reduction in the number of people leaving medical school who have chosen general practice, over a number of years
“There are a lot of people who are dropping out. About a third of young, female GPs are dropping out within five to ten years of going into general practice for all sorts of reasons – and we’ve had the phenomenon of the retirement age for general practice dropping to 57.
“We’re losing people who would’ve previously stayed in the workforce for several more years.
“The experience of working in general practice at the moment is not great, and we’re driving people away because there’s too much bureaucracy and too much admin.”
Dr Paddy Hannigan
Dr Hannigan said patient satisfaction levels have fallen significantly as a result of people not being able to book GP appointments.
More than half of those surveyed said it wasn’t easy to get through to someone at their GP practice over the phone.
The data also shows more than a quarter of patients felt the experience of booking an appointment to see a GP was poor.
However, the overall experience was rated ‘good’ by more than 70% of those surveyed in Staffordshire – and Dr Hannigan said they were hoping greater use of digital technology could help reduce the administrative roles which can take up the time of GPs.
