Most oversubscribed GP practice in east Sussex revealed

The GP practices in east Sussex with the most and least patients per doctor have been revealed.

The British Medical Association said large disparities in GP to patient ratios throughout England are "wholly unacceptable" and called on the Government to address the longstanding issues.

NHS Digital figures show 566,532 patients were registered at GP practices in the NHS East Sussex CCG area at the end of January – along with the equivalent of 289 full-time GPs.

This means if the patients were equally spread, each GP would be dealing with an average of 1,961 patients – but the figures vary drastically across the 52 practices which were recorded as having patients and any FTE practitioners.

Hastings Old Town Surgery has the worst ratio in the area, with 15,431 patients per full-time GP.

This was followed by Manor Park Medical Centre (6,968) and The Station Practice (4,488).

Patient ratios vary widely across England, from 41,000 patients per GP at a practice in Coventry and Warwickshire, to just 96 at a Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin surgery.

Dr Kieran Sharrock, BMA England GP committee deputy chairman, said: “This data shows worryingly large disparities in GP to patient ratios across the country and it is wholly unacceptable that patients should have to experience such variations in access to care.

“The Government has failed to address the longstanding recruitment and retention issues in general practice and we now have a very unsustainable and unsafe situation where fewer GPs are being tasked with the responsibility of caring for significantly more patients."

Dr Sharrock said the Government has not paid enough attention to the primary care backlog and should provide "urgent and substantial support" to enable high quality care.

Meanwhile, the east Sussex practices with the lowest number of patients per GP are Arlington Road Surgery (971), Ashdown Forest Health Centre (1,071) and Seaford Medical Practice (1,128).