GP jobs ‘crisis' leaves qualified doctors considering unemployment benefits
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the number of GPs who are unable to get work is set to 'worsen' this summer when up to 1,000 new GPs qualify.
The doctors' union highlighted that patients are 'struggling to access timely care' while GPs with jobs face 'unsafe and unmanageable workloads'.
BMA leaders said financial pressures facing GP surgeries are 'leaving individual practices with too few additional funds to expand their GP workforce'.
And a Government initiative to cut red tape and allow surgeries to use another funding pot to employ more GPs 'will not generate additional GP jobs', they added.
In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, GP leaders from around the country said: 'We are writing to collectively raise our concerns about the increasing unemployment of GPs across England, and how this will be worsened when the next cohort of GPs qualify this summer.
'We are expecting hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand GP registrars completing their training this August who could be left facing unemployment – hence the urgency of our ask.'
They added: 'Based on feedback from colleagues, many are seeking alternative careers in medicine, outside the NHS, beyond medicine, and some are even considering employment benefits as a direct result of this unemployment crisis.'
The BMA, which has launched a campaign to 'end GP unemployment', said the Government should provide ring-fenced funding for GP surgeries to use solely for the purpose of hiring more family doctors.
Did you know there is a GP unemployment crisis in the UK?
Speaking at #UKLMC2025 today @DrCheskaBall & @VictoriaHMcKay – co-chairs of the BMA GP Registrars committee – call for 'ring-fenced funding direct to practices to employ newly qualified GPs'
Read more 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/HvLf34DtSl
— General Practice (@BMA_GP) May 9, 2025
Dr Katie Bramall, chairwoman of the BMA's England general practitioners committee, said: 'GPs who run their own practices are overworked and desperate to offer more appointments to stop the 8am scramble by increasing the numbers of GPs available in their practices.
'Meanwhile, newly-qualified, UK-trained GPs are struggling to find roles while desperate to see patients.
'We have seen more funding and more flexibility since the Labour Government came into power, but this unemployment crisis, many years in the making, alongside severely constrained practice finances, needs action now to both retain these GPs and give patients more appointments.
'We know public finances are tight – but the best bang for an NHS buck is to provide ring-fenced reimbursements at a practice level to get as many GPs seeing patients as soon as possible.'
Dr Mark Steggles, chairman of the sessional GP committee, said: 'We've heard terrible stories about how the struggle to find work is affecting GPs at all stages of their careers.
'This is exactly why we need practice-based, ring-fenced funding to get more GPs, regardless of where they are in their careers, back into general practice.'
Dr Cheska Ball and Dr Vicki McKay, co-chairwomen of the BMA's GP registrars committee, said in a statement: 'It's devastating to think that, after years of hard work and study, new GPs might not be able to start their careers – and we risk losing them to other professions as a result.
'The few roles that are available to new GPs are incredibly competitive and, even if someone manages to get one, they're often fixed-term and not conducive to what being a family doctor means.'
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
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