27 million to wait more than a week for GP appointment in 2014

Doctors expect waiting times to continue to rise over coming years as proportion of NHS funding for general practice falls to a record low

More and more patients will have to wait more than a week for an appointment with their GP in the coming years, the Royal College of General Practitioners has warned. (PA)

27 million patients in England will have to wait at least a week for an appointment with their GP next year because of a shortage of family doctors, the Royal College of General Practitioners has warned.

The numbers of GPs in England are declining sharply compared with a rise in the the amount of hospital doctors - a gap which the RCGP predicts is set to widen.

71 per cent of family doctors expect waiting times to increase further over the next two years due to fewer resources for general practice, the RCGP said.

Dr Maureen Baker, chairwoman of the organisation, said: “It is vital to ensure that patients are able to access their local GP quickly and effectively - just as it is important for hospitals to have adequate numbers of qualified consultants to look after patients who are in need of acute health care.

“We need to ensure that we have enough GPs to provide patients with good access to high-quality health care in local communities across the UK.”

11 years ago there were 2,500 more full-time equivalent GPs than hospital doctors. However by last year, with 31,700 GPs, there were 6,500 less than the 38,200 hospital doctors.

The RCGP expects the difference to increase further in the next 10 years, predicting that there will be 37,000 GPs and 59,000 hospital doctors by 2022.

The falling GP numbers coincides with a dramatic cut in the proportion of the NHS budget spent on general practice, the RCGP said, which at 8.39 per cent, has dropped to its lowest share on record.

It added that the only way to reverse the trend of long waits would be to increase the budget for general practice to 11 per cent by 2017, starting with a 1 per cent increase next year.

“Most people want to be looked after in their local community and they want to be able to see their GP quickly,” Dr Baker said.

“The dramatic diversion of doctor posts away from general practice into hospitals works against this fundamentally important principle.

“Ministers say repeatedly that we need to alleviate pressure on hospitals by delivering more care in the community, yet the numbers of posts being created for consultants and GPs is completely at odds with this.

“If waiting times get longer, it will be more difficult for GPs to ensure that problems are caught early, and the pressure on A&E will intensify. This is bad news for patients and bad news for the whole of the NHS.”

Patricia Wilkie, chairwoman of the National Association for Patient Participation, said: “Unless there is an increase in the overall numbers of GPs and more financial resources to practices to employ more GPs to provide a safe and timely service, patients will have no alternative but to use A&E to receive the medical attention they need.

“This is not what patients wish nor the best use of NHS resources.”