People in Rugby face longer wait to see doctor amid fall in GP numbers

The Royal College of GPs has warned that “valuable GP time must be spent on the frontline” during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, with patient numbers expected to surge over the coming weeks.

NHS England data reveals that 532,001 patients were registered at GP practices in the NHS Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group area on March 1.

The number has decreased by 109 since the start of the year, when there were 532,110 patients spread between 288 GPs, according to workforce figures taken a day earlier.

Different NHS figures show the number of full-time equivalent GPs in Coventry and Rugby is falling – over the course of 2019, 15 fewer GPs took on 9,094 more patients.

The average GP now has around 1,847 patients, compared to 1,726 at the start of last year.

The figures include partners, registrars and salaried GPs as well as locum and retained GPs, but not other practice staff.

Across England, 60.4 million patients were registered at GP practices at the start of March.

But despite a rise in full- time equivalent GPs in the country, the number who were fully qualified fell to 28,319 in December last year – 277 fewer than in December 2018.

The King’s Fund says this is partly down to more GPs choosing to spend only part of their week in frontline clinical practice.

Beccy Baird, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said: “The overall number of full-time equivalent GPs keeps falling and that creates a vicious cycle of increased pressure on primary care services.

“Increasing the number of GPs, pharmacists and other primary care professionals is critical. The coronavirus will place further strain on already stretched services, and patients and the public can help.”