A county will face a ‘planned exodus’ of GPs within the next five years, unless issues around funding and bureaucracy are urgently resolved.
The warning comes from Kent LMC, which called on local MPs to lobby the Government and NHS England to urgently address the problems.
General practice in the county is ‘at a tipping point’, the LMC warned, citing survey data revealing an ‘imminent workforce crisis’.
The LMC’s local survey, which received 229 GP responses, revealed ‘a worrying picture’ of declining numbers of doctors working in ‘challenged estates’ with ‘unsustainable increases’ in workload.
It revealed that 57% of Kent GPs are considering: retirement (30%), reducing their hours (19%) or leaving the profession entirely (8%) within the next five years.
The LMC said that this ‘planned exodus’ is one of the biggest changes in the recent survey figures, up more than 10 percentage points since a similar survey undertaken locally in 2017.
GP recruitment is being hampered by confusion around funding streams, poor estates and a sparsity of applications causing some practices to cease recruitment, the survey showed.
Kent LMC is asking local MPs to lobby the Government and NHS England to:
- Reduce the burden on GP practices having to manage multiple funding streams and increase recurrent sustainable funding
- A significant uplift in recurrent investment for GP premises and IT infrastructure
- Reduce the administrative burden on GPs urgently, including that relating to ‘PCN arrangements’
- Thoroughly review the PCN initiative taking a ‘patient-centric’ approach.
Kent LMC chair Dr Gaurav Gupta said: ‘If communities across Kent and Medway want a safe and accessible NHS general practice service then we need the Government to increase funding and reduce administrative burdens.
‘This will enable general practice to get the desperately required workforce and infrastructure in place and allow us to provide decent healthcare services to our patients.’
The Kent data paints an even darker picture than Pulse’s survey into GP recruitment and retention earlier this year. This revealed that 49% of GPs were thinking of leaving general practice altogether – including retirement.
Earlier this year, GPs warned of ‘intense workload and workforce pressures’ as practices have offered millions of appointments more per month than in 2019, despite the number of GPs continuing to fall.
Last year, the RCGP predicted that nearly 19,000 GPs and trainees will exit the profession in a ‘mass exodus’ over the next five years, unless workforce and workload issues are urgently addressed.
No one actually cares. GPs will carry on working and martyring them themselves. When they go because of retirements/burnout/anything else., all anyone will care about is who is seeing the patients and doing the admin. look after yourself first and foremost.
I planned my exit (early) just over ten years ago and it has been wonderful till now, at least. I’m getting bigger pay rises as a pensioner than I ever did when I worked.
Isn’t it so wonderful to see that the government have already made such a positive response to Kent’s requests, with the announcement of a £ 480 million investment in just one small part of IT and the ‘Federated Data Platform’.
JG, ‘getting bigger pay rises as a pensioner’ not as good as it sounds is it? Wasn’t last State Pension rise, (only 2 or 3%), worse than everyone else’s wage increases in a cost of living crisis, and time-lagging behind other working people’s incomes rises which were a lot larger than pensioners’ increase; also, Personal tax thresholds not keeping up with the rate of inflation does not help anyone much. It has been wonderful for the Treasury: Tory Treasury. Oh, and reduction in National Insurance contributions does not help pensioners really. Which political party is neither helping the NHS nor pensioners? They’ve had 14 years. They’ll soon be pensioners themselves (only they’ll be much better off than most, Haha). Time to vote them out perhaps
Five years sounds a bit optimistic.