{"id":181748,"date":"2025-10-01T04:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/181748\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T04:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:55:12","slug":"kent-and-medway-gps-under-unsustainable-pressure-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/181748\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent and Medway GPs under &#8216;unsustainable pressure&#8217;, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758996736_454_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hagXkB hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/a6f48ad0-9e28-11f0-ba41-9d184b600492.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images A generic image of a caucasian female GP in a white lab coat and striped purple and green shirt writing at a desk. She has a stethescope around her neck. \" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 bGQwLJ\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Kent LMC survey found 73% of GPs were &#8220;significantly stressed&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">A survey of GPs across Kent and Medway has found the service is under &#8220;unsustainable pressure&#8221; and raised concerns about stress, staff retention and unsuitable premises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The survey, conducted by the Kent Local Medical Committee (Kent LMC), found 73% of GPs reported significant stress, with 13% reporting it was &#8220;unmanageable&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">It also found 38% of practices described their workloads as &#8220;rarely manageable or unmanageable&#8221; and 40% planned to retire in the next five years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The Kent LMC is calling for urgent action in order for primary care to be able to deliver <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cy5wpe9r1d6o\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 jZoZnB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the government&#8217;s 10-year plan for health.<\/a> The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">A combination of 230 GPs, practice managers and wider practice staff took part in the 2025 survey which reported &#8220;combined pressures of workforce attrition, financial instability, inadequate estates, unreliable IT and fragmented system working&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The survey said the issues were &#8220;eroding continuity and quality of care&#8221; for patients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Dr Guarav Gupta, Chair of the Kent LMC, said: &#8220;General practice is the cornerstone of the NHS, but it is at breaking point. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">&#8220;Our survey shows the scale of the crisis and the urgent need for action, without investment in General Practice staff, premises, and IT, the ambitions of the Government&#8217;s 10-year plan will remain out of reach \u2013 and patients will pay the price.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cutting services <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The committee, which represents and supports GPs across Kent and Medway,  heard complaints about IT issues- with outages equivalent to the cost of 168 appointments per year, it said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">More than a third of the practices that responded also said they either have or are considering cutting services despite an increase in demand. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The government&#8217;s new 10-year health plan wants to see more care move into the community and an increase in ditigal tech solutions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The committee is calling for urgent action in order to accomplish those aspirations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">This includes increased core funding, funding locally commissioned services, investment in IT and practice buildings, and a resolution to the current unmanageable workload, which it partially blamed on inappropriate transfers from hospitals and community services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The Kent LMC survey found 73% of GPs were &#8220;significantly stressed&#8221; A survey of GPs across&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-181748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}