A total of 90% of practice managers who want to expand their GP workforce in the next year are unable to do so due to a lack of funds, a survey by the RCGP has revealed.
The survey also highlighted that 61% of practice managers say their practice needs to recruit more GPs in the next 12 months to meet patient needs.
But more than 90% report that insufficient core funding in general practice is preventing them from hiring.
The RCGP has written a letter to the health secretary, signed by more than 8,200 GPs and GP registrars, urging him to fund the GP roles needed in the forthcoming 10-year workforce plan.
The letter calls for additional ring-fenced funding for practices to take on the GPs they need, arguing that decades of underfunding have left practices unable to expand their doctor numbers despite rising patient lists and increasing workload.
It also calls for a Primary Care Investment Standard to ensure year-on-year funding increases for the service.
The survey found that 83% of practice managers identified last year’s rise in National Insurance contributions as a key factor preventing them from employing GPs.
And after this year’s Autumn Budget, GP practices’ pay bills will increase again as the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are set to go up from April 2026.
One practice manager said the inability to recruit due to a lack of funds was jeopardising safe working.
‘We cannot afford to recruit any GPs. We desperately need more GPs and it’s difficult to work within safe working limits.
‘Without additional funding, there is nothing we can do to resolve the situation. In our area the issue used to [be a] lack of people, now we have people available and no money to recruit with,’ said the practice manager,’ they said.
A separate RCGP survey found that 66% of final year GP registrars who have looked for work found it difficult.
Of those unable to find work, 70% said there are not enough suitable jobs anywhere in the country and 65% were considering leaving the UK to find work.
More than one in four of all GPs said they had been looking for work in the past year but struggled to find a suitable vacancy.
RCGP Chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said that although nearly 50% more GPs are expected to qualify in 2025 compared with 2019, it was ‘a critical issue’ if they were unable to find work due to practices’ lack of funds.
She said that practices must be properly funded to hire the GPs required.
‘We need to remove any barriers that are preventing GP practices from employing the GPs their community needs,’ said Prof Hawthorne.
RCGP letter
The RCGP letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for the forthcoming 10-year Workforce Plan to:
- Set out how many full-time equivalent additional GPs are needed to meet patient demand in the 10-Year Workforce Plan and publish annual progress updates.
- Guarantee additional ring-fenced funding for practices to hire newly qualified and currently under/unemployed GPs at all career stages as practice-based GPs.
- Accelerate the planned expansion of GP training places set out in the 2023 LTWP, reaching 6,000 places earlier than the current 2031/32 target, and expand training capacity by increasing the number of GP trainers as well as providing the space in practice buildings needed to meet future demand.
- Develop a National Retention Strategy for general practice with increased and ringfenced funding for GP retention efforts.
- Commit to a Primary Care Investment Standard, with the Secretary of State and ICBs reporting annually on general practice funding, to ensure funding increases year on year.
Source: RCGP
