GPs can no longer guarantee safe care for millions of patients due to a dangerous shortage of medics, according to Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP). She said surgeries are desperate to hire more doctors to meet soaring demand but lack the core funding to do so.
Exhausted family doctors are working “completely unsafe hours” because practices cannot afford to recruit new staff or replace those leaving, increasing the risk of serious errors or missed diagnoses. “GPs will always push themselves to do what’s best for our patients, but we can’t go on like this,” Hawthorne said.
A fully qualified full-time GP in England now cares for an average of 2,241 patients, up 304 (16%) in ten years. An RCGP survey found 61% of practice managers need to hire at least one more GP in the next year, but 92% cite lack of core funding as a barrier.
In the 12 months to September 2025, a record 386 million consultations were delivered in England alone – 86 million more than in 2019. Yet many patients still struggle to get an appointment. Hawthorne said: “We know how frustrating it can be for our patients when they struggle to see their GP.”
More than 8,000 GPs have signed a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting urging action to train, recruit and retain more doctors. The RCGP chair wrote: “We cannot keep expecting general practice to provide timely, safe care for patients if we simply do not have the means to do so.”
