General Practitioners
(asked on 20th March 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the level of GP shortages in (a) Chelmsford, (b) Ormskirk, (c) Lincoln, (d) Sunderland, (e) Canterbury and (f) Bradford.
The figures for numbers of general practitioner (GP) to patients in the areas highlighted are set out in the table below.
All Practitioners as at September 2017 | |||
Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Name | All Practitioners (excluding Retainers, Registrars and Locums) | All Patients | Patients Per GP |
NHS Mid Essex CCG | 197 | 380,932 | 1,934 |
NHS West Lancashire CCG | 61 | 113,581 | 1,862 |
NHS Lincolnshire West CCG | 118 | 239,826 | 2,032 |
NHS Sunderland CCG | 154 | 284,133 | 1,845 |
NHS Canterbury and Coastal CCG | 138 | 223,838 | 1,622 |
NHS Bradford Districts CCG | 225 | 332,079 | 1,476 |
NHS Bradford City CCG | 55 | 138,582 | 2,520 |
England Total | 34,267 | 58,674,676 | 1,712 |
The Department and NHS England established a scheme to recruit GPs to ‘hard to recruit’ areas. Other support being provided to encourage GPs to remain in the National Health Service includes the GP Career Plus and the GP Retention Scheme. In addition, the National GP Induction and Refresher Scheme helps GPs back into the NHS.
By 2020 the Government has committed to 5,000 additional doctors in general practice, as part of a wider increase to the total workforce in general practice of 10,000.