The GP system is on the brink of collapse after hundreds of docs confessed they are cutting hours because they can’t afford to heat their surgery.
More than one in 10 self-employed GPs – called partners – have been forced to reduce the time they see patients due to soaring energy bills.
And to add to the cost-of-living chill, nearly a quarter have stopped recruiting surgery staff and 16% have frozen pay or offered below-inflation pay rises.
Dr Jackie Applebee said: “There are practices all over the country down to their last partner and they are teetering on the brink.
“If general practice collapses, which it could well do, then the NHS will completely fall over because how will it be managed without the gatekeeper at the frontline? It is a huge worry.”
One in five GP partners, who unlike those on NHS salaries have to pay for the running of their practice, have asked staff to wear more clothes so heating can be turned down.
Nearly one in 10 of those surveyed by medical website Pulse said they were even considering shutting shop and handing back their NHS contracts. Some practices have seen bills rocket sixfold since last winter.
Dr Clare Bannon of the British Medical Association said: “The lack of support and investment to help practices during this difficult period threatens the care for patients.
“The situation is simply unsustainable.” GP partners are leaving the NHS in droves with numbers down 11% in three years.
Latest figures show there are around 17,000 GP partners in England running about 6,500 practices.
Dr Applebee, 59, a salaried GP in east London and member of the union Doctors In Unite, said heavy workload and high levels of burnout were behind the mass exit.
She said: “Nobody wants to be a GP partner any more. Why would you?
“They are given a fixed amount of money to run certain services and what’s left at the end of the month after paying their staff, their rent, the heating and everything else, that is their salary.
“So if energy bills go rocketing up like they have, what partners take home at the end of the month goes down.”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “After 13 years of Conservative mismanagement, patients find it impossible to get a GP appointment. The last thing they need is further disruption caused by the Conservatives’ economic failure and undermining of Britain’s energy security.
“Labour will train an extra 7,500 doctors a year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax.”
A Government spokesman said: “Public sector businesses are covered by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
“We are also investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million GP appointments by next year.
“This is in addition to the £4.5 billion real terms annual increase for primary and community care. We’re committed to supporting GPs. There are over 2,000 more since December 2019.”
