Under pressure GP surgeries dealing with 11 per cent rise in appointments compared with pre-pandemic levels

Dr Paddy Hannigan, a GP in Stafford and a clinical director for primary care, said GP surgeries were dealing with more patients than they were before the pandemic but with fewer doctors available.

He said national figures show a decline from an average of 47 GPs per 100,000 people in December 2017, to 44 per 100,000 in December 2021.

He said Staffordshire’s 142 GP surgeries are now coping with an 11 per cent increase in the number of appointments compared with pre-pandemic levels.

GPs across Staffordshire carried out nearly 6 million appointments over the past year, equating to an average of roughly five appointments per person who lives in the county.

Three quarters of appointments were held face to face, with the rest conducted online or via the phone.

Dr Hannigan explained part of the reason there’s so much difficulty with booking a GP appointment is fewer people are entering the profession.

He said: “There’s been a reduction in the number of people leaving medical school who have chosen general practice, over a number of years

“There are a lot of people who are dropping out. About a third of young, female GPs are dropping out within five-10 year of going into general practice, for all sorts of reasons.

“And we’ve had the phenomenon of the retirement age for general practice dropping to 57. We’re losing people who would’ve previously stayed in the workforce for several more years.

“The experience of working in general practice at the moment is not great, and we’re driving people away because there’s too much bureaucracy and too much admin.”

He said patient satisfaction levels have fallen significantly as a result of people not being able to book GP appointments.

More than half of those surveyed said it wasn’t easy to get through to someone at their GP practice over the phone.

The data also shows more than a quarter of patients felt the experience of booking an appointment to see a GP was poor.

However, the overall experience was rated ‘good’ by more than 70 per cent of those surveyed in Staffordshire.

Doctors believe this shows that patients value the care they receive when they’re able to access it.

Dr Hannigan said they are now hoping to use more digital technology – such as enabling bookings and requests online – as well as new call management systems to help stop with the 8am rush experienced with many GP surgeries.

He also said 10-20 per cent of GP time is taken up dealing with administration, which is time they could spend helping patients if more is done to cut red tape.

In some practices patient contacts have increased between 20 per cent to 40 per cent since before the pandemic; leading to a risk that GPs are becoming overloaded and spend less time with patients.