One in three GPS in England does not work in the NHS, with growing figures seeking to move abroad or to become a private entrepreneur, deepening the difficulties of patients to obtain appointments.
The proportion of family physicians who, although qualified, does not provide care by the NHS increased from 27% in 2015 to 34% last year, according to a study published in the BMJ.
This means that nearly 20,000 general practitioners who could work in the health service are “lost” and do not do so, despite an unprecedented request for care and many government initiatives to try to increase the number of general practitioners.
While a total of 58,548 general practitioners in England appeared on the general register of the Medical Council (GMC) at the end of last year, only 38,626 of them were in general practice – a difference of 19,922.
The association of patients said that the results were “deeply painful” for patients who are often frustrated by the moment to obtain a consultation with a general practitioner.
The heavy workloads of GPS, the growing requests of the patients they are confronted with and the widespread frustration that they have too little time to properly take care of patients are behind the professional exhaustion of family physicians who feed their increasing dropping of NHS, according to the researchers.
“Although there is a welcome increase in the number of general practitioners on paper, this report according to which one in three GPS does not work in the NHS is deeply painful for patients who already experience frustration and anxiety when they try to access a GP meeting.
“Long expectations, fragmented care and delayed diagnoses endanger people’s health,” said Rachel Power, director general of the patient association.
The intense pressures of the family doctorate means that many newly qualified general practitioners do not join the NHS after the end of their training or leave the general practice at the start of their career, according to the researchers, led by Luisa Pettigrew of the London School of Hygiene and tropical medicine.
The financial cost of the GPS leaving the NHS is enormous. Each fully qualified GP costs £ 430,540 to train during the years of their undergraduate and third cycle studies, according to the researchers.
The study indicates: “The gap between general GPS of general GMC and NHS in 2024 represented an investment estimated at 8.6 billion pounds sterling in workforce training and 13.1 billion pounds [the presence of] graduates in international medicine. »»
The results count with research published last month by the GMC, which regulates doctors in the United Kingdom. He has found major increases in recent years in the number of general practitioners to move abroad, work in private or completely leave the medical profession.
For example, the proportion of general practitioners across the United Kingdom who said they were likely to move abroad to practice medicine more than doubled from 10% in 2020 to 21% last year.
Likewise, the percentage that said they were likely to start working in private or increase the time they spent working as a private general practitioner has gone from 23% in 2019 to 29% in 2024 – more than the trend among global doctors, which 23% declared that they planned this change.
And the proportion that took “steps” to completely leave the British medical profession, such as contacting a recruiter, applying for non -clinical roles or starting to retire, going from 4% in 2019 to 15% in 2024.
General practitioners, in particular 30 to 49 year olds, general practitioners and those of London and Southeast are most likely to leave, the study of official data of the NHS workforce.
The deepening of the disengagement of general practitioners of the NHS threatens government plans to keep a lot of care from hospitals in the community and create new “neighborhood health services”, added the researcher.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the Royal College of GPS, said that the results reflected the fact that, despite the record number of newly qualified doctors starting the GP training in England in recent years, the inability of the NHS to preserve family doctors meant that new recruits “spilled into a bucket”.
Wes Street, the Secretary of Health, should focus more on how to improve the retention of general practitioners in the NHS than on the expansion of their number thanks to his next overhaul of the NHS long-term workforce, she said.
The Ministry of Health and Social Coins has not directly commented on the conclusions.
“We are progressing to reverse more than a decade of negligence in primary care, recruiting more than 2,000 additional gps in the past year, offering a record increase of 1 billion pounds sterling and funding vital upgrades in surgeries, as well as reducing administrative formalities so that doctors can spend more time taking care of patients.
“July 2025 saw the highest erasure of the staff of general practitioners and patient satisfaction with the increased GP services.”
