‘Deprived’ town fails to attract new doctors

Doctors have warned of a looming health crisis unless more is done to attract GPs to Fleetwood and the Wyre.
Dr Mark Spencer says doctor recruitment is an issue in FleetwoodDr Mark Spencer says doctor recruitment is an issue in Fleetwood
Dr Mark Spencer says doctor recruitment is an issue in Fleetwood

And Dr Mark Spencer says the problem, which has become a pressing national issue, is particularly bad in the port because it is a deprived area.

He says most practices in the area have existing vacancies and are struggling to find new recruits.

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The GP, who heads the Mount View practice, says attracting new GPs to the port is difficult because ongoing local health problems mean a heavy work load for new recruits – without any extra financial reward.

Dr Mark SpencerDr Mark Spencer
Dr Mark Spencer

A key reason for the problem is that as older GPs retire, many newly trained doctors would rather work in hospitals because of better working conditions – leaving worrying shortfalls at GP practices.

Dr Spencer, a GP for 24 years, is calling for the Government to help by providing more funds for practices in deprived areas to help give GPs an incentive to move there.

He said: “It is a real problem all over the country, but particularly bad in deprived areas like Fleetwood.

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“While our immediate difficulties at Mount View has been lessened and patients should not panic, the longer term position is very worrying and needs to be tackled.

“The trouble is that there are just not enough new doctors coming out of medical school who want to become GPs.

“About 30 years ago there was roughly a 50-50 split between doctors going to work in hospitals and those becoming GPs.

“Now it is more like 80-20 in favour of hospitals, because conditions in hospitals there have generally improved as part of EU directives over the last 10 years.

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“Our growing ageing population means that GPs are being inundated and the workload is going up.

“In deprived areas with more health problem, that is even worse.

“But because of the way GPs are paid, their wages come out of a pot and if more nurses are needed to help with greater health problems, there is less in the pot for GPs in deprived areas. That is a real problem.

“One solution to this would be for the Government to help by providing extra funds for deprived areas.”

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Just 12 months ago the Mount View practice, based at the NHS medical centre on Dock Street and with 12,000 patients on its books, had a full register of eight GPs, some of whom were part-time.

This gave the equivalent of six full time GPs.

But with some of the doctors retiring or moving away, that figure will fall to the equivalent of just three full time GPs by February 2016.

A new GP has been signed up but she cannot join the team until April, bringing the number up to four, still leaving the practice short of two full time GPs by then.

And there were similar concerns at the Broadway Medical Centre, based at West View Health Village.

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The practice, which serves 10,100 patients, should have five GPs but currently only has four, and one of those doctors is part-time.

Practice manager Nicola Wilson said: “Trying to recruit new GPs is a national problem but in Fleetwood it is harder than average.

“Apart from being a deprived area, Fleetwood is at the end of the tracks and out of the way.

“When our current GPs retire in a few years’ time, we could have even bigger problems unless things improve.”