Almost all practices are short of at least one GP in England as vacancy levels increase, it was claimed today.

Nearly one in six GP posts are now empty, according to a survey of practices published today.

The Royal College of GPs said that most practices were now unable to recruit the doctors they need.

The figures emerged from a survey of vacancies by Pulse magazine. Pulse said that vacancy levels have increased by about a fifth in the last year.

GP leaders said that efforts to improve GP recruitment were so far failing to deliver results. Health Education England recently hailed success in filling GP training programmes.

College chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: “Almost every surgery in England is now one GP short, at least, and the implications of this are very serious for the wellbeing of our GPs and wider practice teams, and for the provision of safe, high-quality patient care.

“Workload in general practice has risen by at least 16% over the last seven years, but the proportion of NHS spending on general practice remains lower than a decade ago and GP numbers have not kept pace with demand.

“When a practice can’t recruit, we often have no choice but to rely on locum staff, at a greater cost which adds further pressure to pressures. But we know that in some areas, the GPs simply aren’t there to employ in any capacity and we are also very short of other allied healthcare professionals in the community – especially experienced practice nursing staff.”

BMA GP committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey said the latest figures were evidence of the “scale of the crisis” in general practice.