Patients may suffer as GP crisis hits (From Stroud News and Journal)

Patients may suffer as GP crisis hits

A CRITICAL shortage of General Practice doctors in Stroud could leave patients without vital care.

Low morale, unachievable targets and increasing bureaucracy has been blamed for the nationwide shortage of GPs, which has now reached epidemic proportions.

In a recent statement the British Medical Association claim that an extra 10,000 GPs are needed in the NHS by 2004.

But figures show that out of the 4,000 doctors currently qualifying every year less than 30 per cent are going into general practice. Editor of Doctor magazine, Phil Johnson told the SNJ that several factors were contributing to make General Practice an unattractive career option for doctors. Doctors have to suffer a pay cut to train as a GP so many newly-qualified doctors are specialising within the hospitals, he said.

Moreover low morale, a shortage of resources and a huge amount of administration in general practice is causing many current GPs to retire early.

Painswick GP Dr Kevin Barraclough spoke of coming up against bureaucratic indifference recently when his practice applied for a GP to replace a retiring partner.

Their patient list was 90 short of the required number and they were turned down, despite protests that the practice offers an extremely high level of personal care.

Dr Barraclough went on to say that the frustration and helplessness GPs feel is heightened by the constant bombardment from the Department of Health with missives talking about the increasing need for doctors, of more support for primary care and the need for excellence and personal care.

A spokesman for the British Medical Association (BMA) told the SNJ: We can only foresee the problem increasing. It is affecting rural areas now as well as the harder-hit urban areas.

One factor is that now more than 50 per cent of medical students are women who at some point in their careers will take maternity leave. Being a GP is not a family-friendly option so many will choose to work part-time, which means the real number of new GPs needed is even higher than estimated.

He said GPs were being thwarted every way they turn - the current average consultation time is seven minutes per patient but GPs would like to see this go up to 15 minutes to provide better patient care.

The BMA spokesman went on to say: Lets face it, we have a shortage of nurses, doctors and beds.

We are constantly lobbying the government to make the changes needed.

Dr Barraclough believes that doctors may be unhappy because so much of what they do is unacknowledged while they genuinely believe in the NHS.

When asked whether GPs were downhearted Dr Barraclough said: Well yes we are a little, actually.