General practitioner

A general practitioner (GP) also called a family doctor or a primary care physician is a medical doctor who works outside of a hospital. They deal with all sorts of health problems. They often get to know families over a long time. This continuity is very important.^[1] In many countries they send people to see specialists. Away from towns they may have to deal with emergencies and deliver babies. They spend most of their time looking after illness in young children and old people.

In many countries general practitioners run their own small business. They are very important in rural medicine.

United Kingdom

The number of general practitioners increased from 15,000 in 1913 to 19,000 in 1938. 17.6 million people were registered with a GP in 1938 - about half of the population.^[2]

In December 2022 there were 36,622 permanent qualified GPs working in England - Full-time equivalent was 27,375. 69% worked between 15 and 37.5 hours a week.^[3] The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom changed the way they worked. Telephone and video was used much more. Some people were very unhappy about this and there were a lot more complaints.^[4] In Northumberland, Gosport, Wolverhampton and West Cheshire some of the GPs now work for the local hospital trust.^[5]

Numbers of GPs have been dropping for several years.^[6] Demographic change has led to “demand outstripping supply” with an increasing – and increasingly elderly – population putting immense pressure on GP services which have not expanded in the last ten years.^[7] In 2015, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he would recruit 5,000 more GPs by 2020. By 2024 number of fully qualified doctors at GP surgeries in England had fallen by 1,877. and the number of registered patients had increased by 11%.^[8]

Spain

In November 2022 more than 4,000 GPs in Madrid went on an ‘indefinite strike’. People had to wait a week to see a GP. They were each seeing ‘more than 50 or 60 patients’ in their working day.^[9]