GP Recruitment and Retention

Debate between Ross Thomson and Bridget Phillipson

Wednesday 28th March 2018 Westminster Hall

[Bridget Phillipson]

I will touch on all the points the hon. Lady raises as I continue through my contribution.

I am clear that addressing the housing crisis in our country should be an absolute priority for the Government, but I argue that building thousands of new homes without ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is in place to meet increased demand on health, transport and education services would be a recipe for disaster. Poorly planned housing developments that do not take account of local need will only undermine public confidence in supporting a housing revolution in this country.

It is not just our constituents who are concerned about the deteriorating state of general practice in the north-east. Just over 18 months ago I was contacted by the Sunderland local medical committee about the findings of a confidential survey of local GPs and practice managers, which showed that almost half of those surveyed had seen a large increase in their workload and a further 31% reported an increase to unsustainable levels. Although two thirds of practices had attempted to recruit new family doctors, many had found recruitment difficult, and a majority reported that patient care had been adversely affected by the failure to recruit and retain GPs, the increasing workload that imposed on existing GPs and the significant reduction in core funding allocated to their practices. As a result, 60% of Sunderland GPs and practice managers said that their practice was viable only for between one and three years, with many local doctors considering early retirement or a career change.

That survey highlighted the profound problems at the heart of general practice in Sunderland, further evidence of which was laid bare in statistics I requested from the Department of Health later in 2016. Those figures showed not only a shocking 25% reduction in the number of full-time equivalent GPs in the NHS Sunderland clinical commissioning group area between 2013 and 2015 but also an accelerating rate of decline from one year to the next. The way in which full-time equivalent GP numbers were measured changed in 2015, but the new methodology shows a continued decline of 9% in the Sunderland CCG area between September 2015 and December 2017.

I am sorry to say that the most recent figures for other parts of the north-east make for even more painful reading. In the Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG area there was a 15% drop in numbers over the last two years. In the South Tees CCG area it was 14.9%. In the Darlington CCG area it was 13%, and in the Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield CCG area it was also 13%. I could go on, but it is obvious that the exodus of family doctors from the profession is having a serious impact on the number of hours being made available for general practice in our region.

As a result, the demand on family doctors who continue to soldier on is intensifying. Not one practice in my area has a lower ratio of patients to full-time equivalent GPs than the England average of 1,738:1. In fact, each and every practice is consistently and significantly above that. The situation will be similar, if not worse, in other parts of the north-east.

Coupled with the plummeting number of full-time equivalent GPs is the similarly concerning decline in the number of GP practices in the area, from 53 in 2013 to just 40 today. I accept that there are merits to the argument that consolidating practices makes them more sustainable in the long term by creating larger patient lists. However, it is really important to remember that practice closures can leave behind big holes in communities.

[Ross Thomson (Aberdeen South) (Con)]

In Scotland we face a shortage of 1,000 GPs by 2021. Torry medical practice in my constituency has really struggled to fill vacancies and decided to end its contract with the NHS at the end of July. The practice is vital to the area, and thousands of my constituents rely on its services. Does the hon. Lady agree that the Scottish Government should seriously consider ways in which they can attract more medical students to Scotland?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Attracting medical students to areas of the country with the greatest need is important. That is something I have been seeking to do, and I am sure the hon. Gentleman will continue to make that case as well.