Why is there a GP shortage in Worcestershire?

Jason Seewoodhary, GP at Barbourne Health Centre, said Worcestershire is "struggling" to meet the demand for appointments due to difficulties in recruiting and retaining GPs.

He said: "The number of full-time equivalent GPs per patient in England has dropped by 10 percent over the past five years.

Meanwhile, the number of patients registered with GP practices in England has risen by nearly 3.2 million over the last five years, an increase of five percent."

He said the supply and demand in the city is a "mismatch".

Recent efforts have been made in Worcestershire to increase the GP workforce, with a new graduate-entry medical school, at the University of Worcester, accepting its first intake of international medical students next year.

Additionally, the local Worcestershire and Herefordshire GP training programme is currently training over 120 junior doctors.

However, Dr Seewoodhary said the efforts are "limited in their application".

He said: "From the point of entering medical school, it takes a minimum of 10 years to qualify as a GP and, considering General Practice is a dynamic profession, there’s no guarantee that those medical students will choose to stay locally in Worcestershire upon qualifying as doctors."

The doctor said the large amount of administration work is another reason for the shortage.

He said: "The workload, inclusive of a large amount of administration, is extremely high and burn-out and exhaustion amongst GPs leads many to sadly leaving the profession.

"GPs often have academic, governance and managerial commitments as well, which are essential to the job, however, this does limit appointment availability to patients.

"I hope this enlightens our patients to understand that General Practice is doing the best it possibly can to meet their needs.

However, the challenges to wholly do so are difficult to surmount but GPs are on your side. All GP Practices openly welcome feedback to positively change and improve services."