England could lose more than 600 extra GP practices by 2022, the British Medical Association warns today.

It has published two projections based on the rate of practice closures and mergers over the last six years, and between 2016 and 2017, estimating that England could lose between 618 and 777 practices in the next four years.

NHS Digital figures show there were 7,361 practices in England in 2017, compared to 7,527 in 2016. In 2010 there were 8,324 practices.

The BMA says although some of the reductions are partly due to mergers, many will have closed or been forced to merge as the result of the continued pressures on general practice.

It is now urging the Prime Minister, Theresa May, to address the “historic underfunding of general practice”.

Dr Richard Vautrey, BMA GP committee chair, said: “We have seen the devastating effect of practice closures over the last few years, with more than a million patients displaced since 2013, and now this analysis paints an even bleaker picture for the future.

“Patients already face unacceptably long waits for appointments, and without urgent government action and significantly more investment this will only get worse as millions more are left without a practice and struggling to find a new one.

“As GPs face the mounting pressures of increased demand, unmanageable workloads and lack of resources, more and more are leaving the profession or handing back their contracts. At the same time, too many medical school graduates are seeing the situation unfold in general practice and understandably choosing other specialties.

“The latest workforce figures speak for themselves, and just yesterday, the Health Secretary finally admitted that his pledge to hire an extra 5,000 GPs by 2020 was unreachable.”

He said the 2016 NHS England GP Forward View (GPFV) outlined a number of measures aimed at improving primary care provision and the working lives of doctors, but it is “struggling to deliver on its promises”.

“While progress has been made in a number of areas, GPFV has failed to make a big enough impact on the recruitment and retention crisis, and has been unable, so far, to make any significant inroad into the unmanageable daily workload within general practice. Furthermore, despite frequent requests from the BMA, NHS England is yet to clarify whether its spending promises are on track,” said Dr Vautrey.

“Overall, our research provides further evidence that general practice remains in critical condition.”

Meanwhile the Royal College of GPs warned that recruitment of new GPs was not happening “fast enough” and urged Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt not to abandon the target of 5,000 extra GPs by 2020.

Chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: “It is becoming abundantly clear, with GP numbers in England dropping, that efforts to build the profession by 5,000 GPs by 2020 are not working fast enough. The Health Secretary has now recognised this publicly for the first time, but it is essential that he does not give up on this much-needed target, but implements new, innovative measures to meet it.

“We know that we have more GPs in training than ever before, but it takes many years to train a GP. We need to concentrate on retaining our experienced family doctors in the profession so that patients can benefit from their expertise, and newer GPs can learn from them – and we need to start by tackling workload in general practice that has escalated both in volume and complexity in recent years, and the unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy that GPs are increasingly having to deal with.”