The NHS in England has lost more than 800 fully qualified GPs in the last year and is “haemorrhaging doctors,” according to new data.

Including trainees, the NHS had 45 fewer GPs in June compared with a year earlier, according to the NHS Digital data, suggesting that improved trainee recruitment has failed to counteract the loss of senior doctors. However, measured as full time equivalents, there was an increase of 475 in GP capacity, including trainees.

The British Medical Association said the NHS had seen a reduction of 850 fully qualified GPs in a year. Dr Samira Anane, from its GP committee, said: “Again, we see general practice haemorrhaging doctors while the number of patients practices are looking after reaches record highs.

“Almost 62 million patients are now registered at practices in England – almost 1 million more than a year ago and almost 5 million more than in 2015 – with an average of 9,500 at each practice. As these numbers rise while the number of family doctors fall, each remaining GP is now responsible for 2,200 patients on average, 16% more than they were in 2015 when records began. Faced with the biggest hospital waiting lists for treatment ever, it’s clear for all to see that both trends are going the wrong way – and people will only struggle further to get the care they need.”

The chair of the Royal College of GPs, Professor Martin Marshall, said: “Despite repeated promises to boost GP numbers, today’s figures show that we have more than 1,500 fewer qualified, full-time equivalent GPs than we did five years ago. The result is a chronically over-stretched and under-resourced general practice service, with GPs and their teams working to their absolute limits to deliver increasingly complex care to the ever-rising number of patients that need it.
This is reflected in today’s GP consultation figures, which show general practice is continuing to deliver more consultations every month than pre-pandemic, with more than 26m appointments delivered in June, and over 44% of those on the same day they were booked.”

He added: “The sad reality is that this situation is likely to get worse. A recent College survey of GPs and trainees suggested nearly 19,000 GPs could leave the profession over the next five years, with many citing stress and working hours as reasons for leaving. We simply can’t afford to lose any more highly-trained and experienced GPs from our workforce.”