Significant increases in spending on general practice across the UK last year were not enough, according to senior GPs.

An NHS digital analysis found a 3.61% increase last year across the UK in spending on primary care last year on top of inflation (a real terms increase). The total cash increase was 5.68%.

According to the analysis, the smallest increase was in Northern Ireland – with a 1.3% real terms increase. The real terms increase in Scotland was 2.79% and in Wales 3.1%.

This represented a sum of £11 billion spent on general practice across the UK.

The British Medical Association said spending on GP services had failed to keep pace with the rest of the NHS.

It said there was a “widely accepted” target that general practice should get 11% of the NHS budget – and that would mean an extra £3.7 billion.

There was also a slowing of the rate of increase in spending, it said. The previous year it increased by 5% compared with a little over 3% last year.

British Medical Association GP committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey said: “The BMA’s GP committee successfully secured an additional £321 million for general practice in England in the past year and whilst that has helped struggling practices it will take far greater levels of sustained investment to resolve the pressures on local GP services.

“With rapidly rising workload pressures, practices cannot be expected to deliver a comprehensive service for as little as £151 per patient per year.”

He added: “In this climate, many GP practices in England are struggling to cope with rising patient demand that is far outstripping current resources, especially as the profession is facing widespread staff shortages. Recent BMA surveys have shown that a third of practices have vacancies unfilled for over a year and nine out of ten GPs report their workload as unmanageable.”