1 in 4 GP posts set to be vacant within a decade in England

As reported by the BBC News, a recent study has found that a quarter of general practice positions will be vacant in ten years’ time

The think tank Health Foundation has said that the GP shortage is only to get worse and that by 2030 the current 4,200 GP shortfall could rise to more than 10,000.

While demand for healthcare and treatment continues to grow, the government is struggling to increase the total number of GPs, largely due to many professionals retiring or moving to part-time positions.

The government has pledged to recruit 6,000 extra GPs by 2024, but this objective looks difficult to achieve.

Director of research at the Health Foundation, Anita Charlesworth, believes that this problem is consistent outside of England too.

“It’s sobering that over the next decade things are set to get worse, not better,” she said.

“It’s critical that government takes action to protect general practice and avoid it getting locked in a vicious cycle of rising workload driving staff to leave, in turn creating more pressure on remaining staff and fuelling even more departures.”

Prof Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, commented on the “bleak” prediction and has said this worst-case scenario would be a “disaster”.

“Our members have told us they lack the time to deliver the care that they want to deliver for patients – and that patients need,” he said.