Alarming new figures show the desperate shortage of GPs as rural areas are worst hit

The Daily Mail reports that Doctors in Unite union claim that the UK is short of 20,000 GPs, with health think tank The King's Fund adding that general practice is 'creaking at the seams', especially in rural areas

More a fifth of England's population live in rural areas, housing a large proportion of the nations elderly people - more likely to have complex, long-term medical problems.

Age UK has been monitoring the impact of the GP crisis on older patients in rural areas and in its most recent survey, 45 per cent said they were worried about their ability to access their GP.

Nuffield Trust warned that the picture for patients is only going to get worse 'with an increasing number of GPs leaving clinical practice or working part-time, and many practices unable to fill vacant GP posts.

Hundreds of thousands of patients are being forced to re-register with another practice after their own practice has closed'.

For many rural areas, housing development is compounding national problems of recruiting and retaining GPs.

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The Daily Mail - EXCLUSIVE: Alarming new figures show the desperate shortage of GPs as rural areas are worst hit... and it’s a prescription for disaster for older patients