A leading London Conservative, Peter Forrest, Conservative GLA Candidate for Enfield-Haringey, has expressed concern at what may be an emerging general practitioner (GP) recruitment crisis facing the capital.

Mr Forrest highlighted a number of worrying trends contained in the recent survey "General Practitioner Recruitment, Retention and Vacancy Survey 2003 England & Wales" issued by the Government Statistical Services (GSS).

The GSS survey revealed that:

1. there were 3,435 GP vacancies in England & Wales in 2002-03 compared to 2,630 vacancies in the previous year

2. over the last 4 years of the survey the number of applications per urban GP vacancy has more than halved

3. 82% of PCTs operating in deprived urban areas reported that it was difficult to fill vacancies

459 of the GP vacancies are in the Greater London Area. Nearly 40% of these fall in South-East London, Bromley Primary Care Trust (PCT) having the dubious distinction of having the highest number of vacancies (37) in the London metropolitan area. Barnet PCT has the highest number of GP vacancies north of the river

Commenting on the report, Peter Forrest said:

"Although thankfully, neither Enfield nor Haringey PCTs is carrying large numbers of GP vacancies this is not true elsewhere in London. The Government survey highlights a number of disturbing trends and, in my view, these may well be early signs that the Capital will be facing a GP recruitment crisis in the relatively near future".

ENDS.