North East doctor warns of unemployment crisis this summer
The BMA has written to the Health Secretary
A North East doctor is warning there is an unemployment crisis with the number of GPs unable to get work is set to "worsen" this summer.
The British Medical Association (BMA) says qualified GPs are being forced to "consider employment benefits" as a direct result of an "unemployment crisis" in the sector.
The doctors' union highlighted that patients are "struggling to access timely care" while GPs with jobs face "unsafe and unmanageable workloads".
BMA leaders said financial pressures facing GP surgeries are "leaving individual practices with too few additional funds to expand their GP workforce".
And a Government initiative to cut red tape and allow surgeries to use another funding pot to employ more GPs "will not generate additional GP jobs", they added.
Dr. George Rae, chairman of the North East BMA Council, said: "Many patients will say 'well, we're struggling to get an appointment', and everybody knows about the 8 o'clock in the morning phoning up their GP and that's against a background of GP unemplyoment, so it's a real paradox. The real concern is that this is going to be made worse.
"We have doctors who, after they qualify, train to be a GP and there are going to be many young doctors coming out of the training course in August and they'll find it very difficult to get a job in general practice, which is quite unbelievable.
"The employment opportunities are so bad that, believe it or not, even in some parts of the country we've got doctors who are even having to consider accessing employment benefits, now that's really most unbelievable.
"The problem is the lack of core funding which has come into general practice over so many years and as a result on that, it means that many practices are having to choose between keeping their doors open or hiring the GPs they need.
"They want ring-fenced but also additional funding direct to the practice to hire newly qualified and currently unemployed GPs. Now, that's impossible at the present time for far, far too many general practices across the North East and England."
Letter to the Health Secretary
In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, GP leaders from around the country said: "We are writing to collectively raise our concerns about the increasing unemployment of GPs across England, and how this will be worsened when the next cohort of GPs qualify this summer.
"We are expecting hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand GP registrars completing their training this August who could be left facing unemployment - hence the urgency of our ask."
They added: "Based on feedback from colleagues, many are seeking alternative careers in medicine, outside the NHS, beyond medicine, and some are even considering employment benefits as a direct result of this unemployment crisis."
The BMA, which has launched a campaign to "end GP unemployment", said the Government should provide ring-fenced funding for GP surgeries to use solely for the purpose of hiring more family doctors.
Dr Katie Bramall, chairwoman of the BMA's England general practitioners committee, said: "GPs who run their own practices are overworked and desperate to offer more appointments to stop the 8am scramble by increasing the numbers of GPs available in their practices.
"Meanwhile, newly-qualified, UK-trained GPs are struggling to find roles while desperate to see patients.
"We have seen more funding and more flexibility since the Labour Government came into power, but this unemployment crisis, many years in the making, alongside severely constrained practice finances, needs action now to both retain these GPs and give patients more appointments.
"We know public finances are tight - but the best bang for an NHS buck is to provide ring-fenced reimbursements at a practice level to get as many GPs seeing patients as soon as possible."
Dr Mark Steggles, chairman of the sessional GP committee, said: "We've heard terrible stories about how the struggle to find work is affecting GPs at all stages of their careers.
"This is exactly why we need practice-based, ring-fenced funding to get more GPs, regardless of where they are in their careers, back into general practice."
Dr Cheska Ball and Dr Vicki McKay, co-chairwomen of the BMA's GP registrars committee, said in a statement: "It's devastating to think that, after years of hard work and study, new GPs might not be able to start their careers - and we risk losing them to other professions as a result.
"The few roles that are available to new GPs are incredibly competitive and, even if someone manages to get one, they're often fixed-term and not conducive to what being a family doctor means."
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "It makes absolutely no sense that GPs are struggling to find work when patients are crying out for appointments.
"Ultimately, this crisis has been caused by decades of chronic underfunding and poor workforce planning that has left general practice struggling to stay above water.
"The efforts made to address this have been helpful in the short term, but we need long term solutions to this growing crisis.
"The Government needs to tackle this issue head on - we need to be doing all we can to keep trained GPs in the profession, not standing by whilst they leave."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "GPs are the front door to our NHS, and through our Plan for Change we are bringing back the family doctor, cutting red tape and investing more in the NHS.
"We have already recruited more than 1,500 GPs and we are now making it easier for primary care settings to hire GPs.
"We have also provided the biggest boost to GP funding in years - an extra £889 million - and are investing £102 million in surgery upgrades."