One in five practices abandon recruitment citing shortage of GPs
Almost one in five practices has had to abandon searching for a new GP as vacancy rates have hit their highest ever, a survey by GP newspaper Pulse has revealed.
Pulse’s annual practice vacancies survey was answered by 860 GPs and reveals that 12.2% of all positions are currently vacant – an increase from the 11.7% reported at the same time last year.
More worryingly, 158 said they had to give up recruiting a GP in the past 12 months after unsuccessful attempts.
The survey - the only longitudinal data available on this subject - also reveals that the average time taken to recruit a GP partner has lengthened by almost a month over the past year.
