EXCLUSIVE: There's more RECEPTIONISTS at GP surgeries than doctors

EXCLUSIVE: Maybe the receptionist will see you now? Fury as data reveals there are more admin staff than GPs themselves at practices

• Family doctors have become outnumbered by receptionists over the past 7 years
• Read more: Junior doctor pay rise of up to 30% is ‘unrealistic’ minister warns

Receptionists now outnumber GPs at practices in England, MailOnline can reveal today amid the never-ending appointment crisis. 

Only a quarter of all 143,000-plus staff working at surgeries across the nation are family doctors, according to our analysis. 

Nurses, healthcare assistants and admin staff, including receptionists, secretaries and call handlers, make up the rest of the workforce.

Campaigners claimed the ratio was a sign that practices are hiring receptionists as cheaper ‘gatekeepers’ that then ‘police patient access to appointments’. 

The analysis comes as millions of Brits continue to battle to get appointments with their family doctor — with many stuck in lengthy phone queues or simply unable to get through at all.

In 2015 family doctors outnumbered receptionists in England’s primary care workforce by over 1,000. But by the end of 2022 this had completely changed with 3,000 more receptionists than GPs. Source: NHS Digital. Some data for reception numbers in 2016 and 2017 is incomplete and has been left in the graph as a straight line

According to the latest data GPs now only account of a quarter of the the primary care workforce, outnumbered 2-to-1 by admin staff, of which over half ae receptionists

While the number of fully qualified GPs in England has overall fallen the patient population has risen to 62million, meaning more Brits competing for fewer doctors

And those who manage to secure an appointment are facing battles to see their GP face-to-face.

Experts have blamed the crisis, which has seen patient groups describe the service as like a ‘stretched elastic band ready to snap, on a rising population and shrinking workforce.

Many family doctors are choosing to retire in their 50s, move abroad or leave to work in the private sector because of complaints about soaring demand, paperwork and a toxic environment. 

It means the number of patients per fully qualified GP has rocketed to its highest-ever level, with an average of 2,273 people scrambling for appointments with each family doctor – an increase of 15 per cent in five years.

Up-to-date NHS statistics show there were 39,782 full-time equivalent receptionists across the country in December.

Read more: Now the junior doctors will strike! ‘Militant’ BMA union joins never-ending wave of winter walk-outs with demand of an inflation-busting 30 PER CENT pay rise 

The results of the British Medical Association’s strike ballot for junior doctors is in with 98 per cent voting to strike

But there were only 36,686 FTE family doctors in the same month. 

By comparison, there were almost 1,400 more GPs than receptionists in 2015, when NHS stats began. 

The ratio has been slowly dropping since then, reaching parity in 2017 before rapidly deteriorating.  

GPs, who are paid on average around £110,000, now only make up about 25 per cent of the workforce. 

Admin staff — the bulk of which are receptionists — account for just over 50 per cent.  

Nurses and other health professionals made up the rest.

FTE records total hours worked in each role — allowing a fairer comparison than pure headcount, which can count part-time staff on par with full-timers. 

Dennis Reed, of Silver Voices, a campaign group for senior residents, said the data was a sign of the ‘sick situation’ in England’s primary care system. 

‘The number of GPs has fallen so low that there is a need for gatekeepers to try and police the number of appointments,’ he said.

‘It’s a sign of the times that there’s this broader need for gatekeepers to control access to GPs than the GP’s themselves seeing patients.’

Doctors unions have defended the role of receptionists amid the appointments crisis, describing them as trained ‘care navigators’ that direct patients to the most appropriate service, cutting down on the workload of GPs and saving them time. 

NHS data for December also shows only 27,000 of the FTE GPs were fully qualified, with rest in training.

This means the ratio of fully qualified GPs to admin staff is even more dire.   

Dr Mike Jones, researcher for the thinktank TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the figures would frustrate patients struggling to see their GP.

Less than seven in ten GP appointments in England (68.3 per cent) were held face to face in December. It marks the second month in a row that the figure has fallen after peaking at 71.3 per cent in October. Eight in ten consultations were in-person pre-pandemic. But the figure has so far failed to bounce back

The latest NHS data on GP appointments for December showed fewer than half of appointments were with a family doctor

There were just 27,558 full-time equivalent, fully qualified GPs working in England last month, down 1.6 per cent on the 18,000 recorded in June 2021. It was down 5.3 per cent on the more than 29,000 working in June 2017

‘With huge pressure on the NHS, this smacks of misplaced priorities,’ he said. 

‘NHS funds should be focused on employing clinical staff to meet patients’ demands.’

Connor Axiotes, director of communications at another thinktank, The Adam Smith Institute, said the figures were another sign that GP system needed an overhaul.

‘Our dysfunctional GP system needs reform,’ he said.

‘It’s in such a bad place that it’s even stopping people from wanting to become GPs in the UK. 

‘This means other areas of our already overstretched NHS are becoming even more overwhelmed.

READ MORE – How bad is my GP? The definitive guide to England’s 6,000+ GP practices

‘At the minute, GPs are perversely incentivised to have more patients signed-up but to see them less. 

‘We want to see a GP system wherein those who need to see their GP can and do so quickly.’

He added that England should move to a system where patients paid to see a doctor directly, instead of through taxes. 

‘Those who need to see the GP urgently would get an appointment quicker. Rather than all patients having to pay by proxy – with both parties’ precious time being wasted,’ he said.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) said: ‘GPs work in multi-disciplinary teams, including both other healthcare professionals and non-clinical staff, such as practice managers and receptionists.

‘All members of the GP team play an invaluable role in ensuring patients receive timely, safe and appropriate care.’

She added that while family doctors share patients’ frustrations regarding appointments, they and other practice staff groups were blameless.

‘It is not the fault of hard-working GPs and members of their practice teams, but due to decades of underfunding and poor resource planning,’ she said. 

‘While the number of fully-qualified, full-time equivalent GPs has fallen by 734 since 2019, the number of patients needing our care and the complexity of their health conditions, has escalated.’

Professor Hawthorne added that RCGP is calling for the Government to commit to a GP workforce strategy as well as taking steps to ‘cut unnecessary bureaucracy that takes GPs away from patient care.’

Read more: Definitive guide to England’s 6,000+ GP practices 

Speaking to MailOnline in January, Dr Kieran Sharrock, the British Medical Association England GP committee acting chair, said practices were actually suffering from a shortage of receptionists. 

‘Practice receptionists are trained “care navigators” and will do all they can to get patients seen by the most appropriate professional in the most timely way possible,’ he said.  

‘But alongside a shortage of GPs, many practices do not have enough receptionists to manage the incoming queries.’

He added that too many GP receptionists face abuse from frustrated patients over the phone, which causing some to leave their jobs.   

An NHS England spokesperson, said: ‘Since 2019, over 25,000 new members of staff with direct patient care roles, such as pharmacists and physiotherapists have started working in general practices, alongside more non-clinical, but public facing workers, such as receptionists.’

‘Thanks to these expanded GP teams, record numbers of appointments are being delivered for patients, with the latest figures showing that more than 27 million appointments took place in December 2022 – up almost 12 per cent’ compared to before the pandemic.’

NHS data analysed by MailOnline includes an estimation for some GP practices that did not provide fully valid staff records.

However, these estimations only account for only for 2 to 9 per cent of the total number of practices analysed, depending on the year.

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