GPs across Berkshire are ‘unable to find work’ despite huge pressures on primary care, a leading doctor has warned.
Areas across West Berkshire were recently identified as having some of the lowest numbers of GPs per population.
But practices are unable to take on new doctors as they have been ‘defunded to below the point of financial viability’, according to the chairperson of Berkshire’s Local Medical Committee.
A BBC analysis found that the NHS Trust covering West Berkshire – which includes Wokingham and Reading and West Berkshire villages – have 2,535 people per GP.
In Wokingham, an average GP is responsible for 500 more patients now than they were less than a decade ago.
But Dr Mark Green, Chair of Berkshire Local Medical Committee (LMC) said that despite the huge demand, ‘GPs are unable to find work’.
Dr Green explained: “General Practice is currently functioning on its lowest share of the NHS budget in over two decades, and there are fewer GPS than ten years ago, with a growing and ageing population.”
Dr Green said that on average, 15 per cent of Wokingham patients are contacting their GP surgery every week.
He continued: “Many GPs are unable to find work due to practices being defended below the point of financial viability.”
Dr Green said that finding a solution ‘will not be easy’, but that it would not be found by increasing access ‘at the cost of patient outcomes and continuity of care’.
He has recently met with MP for Wokingham, Clive Jones, at a roundtable for GP doctors and staff.
The Liberal Democrat has highlighted his concern over the lack of primary care provision across the Wokingham borough as thousands of new homes are to be built.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, October 16, the Liberal Democrat said that the town needed ‘an increased number of GPs to cope with all the extra patients that the new building brings’.
This includes the Arborfield Green site, in which 2,000 homes are being built, with many already complete.
Mr Jones said this was even more pressing as housing targets for Wokingham could be increasing.
In August, the Labour government increased the number of houses councils across Berkshire should be building per year.
Wokingham Borough Council must build 560 more homes per year under the new targets.
West Berkshire must build double what it was previously targeted – rising from 495 to 1,057.
Mr Jones has also secured a meeting with Care Minister Stephen Kinnock to discuss the issues raised by members of the roudtable.
