One in five general practices experienced financial losses last year, and more than half are having difficulty recruiting enough doctors, a survey by the General Practice Owners Association (GenPro) has revealed.
One in four general practices report a decline in their financial situation, which is an improvement compared to two years ago when that figure was four out of five.
Two-thirds of practices are now charging patients for services that were previously free, a trend consistent with recent years.
Meanwhile, four out of five general practices are currently accepting new patients, marking a slight improvement.
GenPro chair Dr Angus Chambers said the findings indicate that general practices are feeling somewhat more hopeful following several difficult years during which many practices either closed, merged, or reduced the services they offer to patients.
“While the results are more positive than in previous years, we expected to see an improvement from what had been a desperate situation,” Chambers said.
Chambers said that having nearly 20% of practices operating at a loss is “unsustainable” and poses a risk that some communities could lose access to doctors unless measures are taken to improve the financial viability of these practices.
“If 18% of our practices had to close, that would make a very significant difference.”
“We appreciate that the government has increased its support of primary healthcare and is overhauling the current out-of-date funding model, but neither step has increased the supply of medical professionals into primary healthcare, meaning family doctors remain overworked and too many patients still cannot easily access a GP.”
Starting from July next year, capitation funding, which is government financial support given to practices for each enrolled patient, will take into account patient complexity, socio-economic disadvantage, and rural location, as well as age and gender.
“There are some flaws in the new calculation; some think it should include ethnicity, but overall it will be a big improvement – as long as the total funding also increases, and it’s not just a redistribution of the current funding, because that would mean some lose funding.
“If you’re in that 18% that are making a loss and your funding goes down more, then you’ll be in trouble.”
The situation for patients remains less than ideal, with over half of general practices reporting vacancies for doctors and almost 25 percent still seeking nurses.
About 85% of those surveyed had recently raised or were planning to raise their fees.
“One bright spot is that only 29% of general practices had reduced their services, a sharp reduction from 54% two years ago.”
“This shows the situation for general practice is stabilising, and it would improve even further if we could do better at recruiting medical professionals,” Chambers noted.
He said that although the findings were promising, there remains a significant need for further progress.