More than half of freelance doctors have struggled to find work in the past year, a survey has found.
A survey of more than 500 local GPs in England, charging up to £850 a day, found that 55 per cent found it difficult to effect a change in practice.
Eight in 10 complained that demand for their services had fallen – despite large parts of Britons desperate to see their GP.
Locum doctors blamed the financial strain on surgeries and the use of less trained medics to fill their roles.
Campaigners today warned that GPs have now become an ‘endangered species’ and attacked practices to replace doctors with ‘less qualified staff’.
A survey of more than 500 local GPs in England, charging up to £850 a day, found that 55 per cent found it difficult to effect a change in practice
GP Online surveyed 533 GPs in England, with 14 percent reporting that demand for their services remained static. Only 5 percent said it had increased.
Nearly nine in ten believed that employment for GPs had declined in their region.
More than half blamed practices struggling to fund locumen. Eight in 10 said operations turned to other staff functions, reducing the use of observers.
Three in ten (29 percent) blamed increased competition from other locum GPs.
An anonymous GP who responded to the survey said practices have been ‘pushed’ to employ other types of staff, such as pharmacists, physician assistants (PAs) and physiotherapists, through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS).
The ARRS scheme was introduced in 2019 and allows primary care networks and groups of GP practices operating in the same area to employ people in other roles, such as podiatrists and occupational therapists, and claim reimbursement for their salaries.
It should increase access for patients, but some experts have called for the money to be spent on hiring locum GPs full-time instead.
In particular, there are concerns about the use of PAs to fill gaps in the primary care workforce.
PAs work under the supervision of a physician and require two years of postgraduate study, but no formal medical training.
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Another GP who responded to the survey complained that they used to have ‘four or five’ practices asking for their work as soon as they announced availability, but that work is now coming in ‘bits and pieces’, meaning they are being booked less and have to travel further.
A GP said they are now applying for work outside the NHS because they fear they will not be able to pay their mortgage and other bills.
Dennis Reed, head of Silver Voices, a campaign group for the over-60s, told MailOnline: ‘Just a few years ago it was lucrative to be a locum GP because there were so many gaps to fill.
‘Practices are now reducing the number of GPs and replacing doctors with junior doctors and other less qualified staff.
‘A sad state of affairs now that the GP is becoming an endangered species.’
Just four in 10 people in England (42.6 percent) saw their GP on the same day they contacted their practice in November, the latest NHS data shows.
A fifth (18.8 percent) waited two to seven days, while 20.9 percent had to wait eight to 21 days. One in twenty had to wait longer than a month.
In October, agencies that work with and connect sites across the country with locums asked physicians to consider lowering their expected hourly rate to increase their chances of getting a job.
Average daily rates in England ranged from £600 to £850 in 2023, up two percent in a year, according to data collected by Management in practice.
In previous years, desperate practices have offered locums up to £1,000 a day to fill staff shortages.
One GP told me Pulse that month that the observer work “literally disappeared overnight” and they had to contact a charity for financial assistance.