The number of full-time GPs working in the NHS in London has dropped by nearly 100 in a year despite rising demand, according to new figures.
Data published by NHS Digital shows that there 98 fewer permanent family doctors working in the London region at the end of February - a decline of about 2.3 per cent on the year before.
All GP statistics are based on the number of full-time equivalent posts in the workforce, not including trainees or locums.
Overall, the number of permanent qualified GPs fell by 1.5 per cent in England in the same period.
Reacting to the figures, Ruth Rankine, director of primary care at the NHS Confederation, said: “Another year on year drop in the number of full-time equivalent, fully qualified GPs is disappointing news for the health service, the government, patients and GPs themselves.
“The government is way off track in its target of 6000 more GPs by 2025, and so must be honest with the public about what general practice and primary care can actually deliver in the next few years.
“With a 2.8 per cent increase in the number of patients per practice, and a 1.5 per cent fall in the number of GP practices in total, realism is needed just as much as a boost to staff numbers.”
She added: “We know that GPs are under immense pressure with a majority saying that their job is extremely stressful.
“This downward trend in terms of staffing must be halted, and the workforce plan must address how this will be done, otherwise we risk this becoming a vicious circle where staff leave due to workload pressures, caused by having too few staff.”
It comes just days after a report found that GPs in the UK are under “extreme strain” and have the highest stress levels compared with doctors in nine other high income countries.
The study, by the Health Foundation charity, found UK GPs also had the lowest job satisfaction compared with those working in France, Germany, the US, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.
Just a decade earlier UK GPs were among the most satisfied of any country, the report said.
The study analysed data from an international survey of 9,526 GPs in 10 high-income countries, including 1,010 in the UK, carried out by the Commonwealth Fund.
It found most GPs in all countries were dealing with higher workloads than before the Covid pandemic, and “many have experienced greater stress and signs of emotional distress”.
But GPs working in the UK reported higher levels of emotional distress and bigger rises in workload than GPs in nearly all other countries, with many considering leaving the profession altogether.
