South east London practice has fewer patients per GP than almost anywhere else in England

A GP practice in south east London has fewer patients per doctor than almost anywhere else in the country, figures reveal.

The British Medical Association said large disparities in GP to patient ratios throughout England are "wholly unacceptable" and called on the Government to address the longstanding issues.

NHS Digital figures show 2,049,741 patients were registered at GP practices in the NHS South East London CCG area at the end of January – along with the equivalent of 1,025 full-time GPs.

This means if the patients were equally spread, each GP would be dealing with an average of 1,999 patients – but the figures vary drastically across the 198 practices which were recorded as having patients and any FTE practitioners.

With 206 patients per GP, Bromleag Care Practice has one of the best GP-patient ratios in England – though it fared worse than a practice in Shropshire, which has just 96 patients per GP.

It was followed by Qhs Gp Care Home Service (388) and Lambeth Healthcare Practice (584).

At the other end of the scale nationally, a surgery in Coventry and Warwickshire has 41,000 patients per GP.

Dr Kieran Sharrock, BMA England GP committee deputy chairman, said: “This data shows worryingly large disparities in GP to patient ratios across the country and it is wholly unacceptable that patients should have to experience such variations in access to care.

“The Government has failed to address the longstanding recruitment and retention issues in general practice and we now have a very unsustainable and unsafe situation where fewer GPs are being tasked with the responsibility of caring for significantly more patients."

Dr Sharrock said the Government has not paid enough attention to the primary care backlog and should provide "urgent and substantial support" to enable high quality care.

Meanwhile, the south east London practices with the highest number of patients per GP are Eden Park Surgery (18,104), Greenwich Peninsula (9,667) and Tessa Jowell Gp Surgery (8,671).

The Royal College of GPs said that between September 2015 and December 2021 the number of patients per GP increased by 10%, the number of fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs fell by 5% and the population grew by 4%.

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the RCGP, said some regions are affected worse than others as they face greater difficulties recruiting new GPs.

GP-patient ratios are highest in London (1,998 per GP on average) and lowest in the North West (1,601).

Professor Marshall added: "GPs want to be able to consistently give their patients the care they deserve, no matter where they live.

"But the increased workload expected of GPs and their teams while their numbers fail to increase at the necessary pace, is unsustainable."

Along with the hiring of more GPs, he said plans are also needed to keep experienced GPs in the workforce for longer.

The Department of Health and Social Care said there were over 1,600 more FTE doctors in December 2021 than two years previously, with a record-breaking number starting training last year.

A spokeswoman added: “We have invested £520 million to improve access and expand GP capacity during the pandemic."