Deprived areas have an over-reliance on locum GPs, analysis shows

Data analysis by the BBC has found large variation in the use of locum GPS across England, with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in some of the most deprived parts of the country using a higher percentage of locums.

Locums make up around 3.4 per cent of the GP workforce according to national averages, but at NHS Bradford City, one of the most deprived CCG areas in the country, locums were found to make up 18 per cent of the GP workforce.

In contrast, the BBC found that at nearby NHS Harrogate in North Yorkshire, one of the most affluent CCG areas, locums made up just one per cent of the workforce over the same time period.

Dr Akram Khan, clinical chair at NHS Bradford City said the reliance on locums was a sign of a ‘recruitment crisis in the profession’ and the BMA has condemned the unacceptable variation in care quality.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the BMA General Practitioners Committee, told the BBC: "There is a real risk of a variation in care quality between areas and that is unacceptable.

"There are CCGs that struggle to recruit GPs because there aren't enough doctors to go round. If practices are reliant on using locum doctors then patients don't get the continuity of care that they would otherwise get from a full time GP."