Suffolk GP surgery demand near doubling, health bosses say

A GP said the increase in demand was a massive challenge to the system

GP surgeries in Suffolk are experiencing a "near doubling" in demand, health leaders said.

The county council's health scrutiny committee said it was exploring ways to meet the needs of an ageing population and more complex health problems.

One health boss said GP practices with an average patient list of about 10,000 were responsible for 20,000 prescriptions per month.

A local GP said the pressure was being felt across the health system.

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Dr Peter Smye, GP partner at the Guildhall and Barrow Surgery in Bury St Edmunds, said: "Going forward over the next 10 years we face a similar escalation in demand and this is a massive challenge to the system.

"The knock-on effect is that quite a lot of that work will come into the community and how we can mitigate that."

In Norfolk and Waveney, about three million appointments were delivered between April and August, an increase of 940,000 compared with the same period in 2019/20, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The committee said it wanted to introduce measures to keep existing GPs, such as offering flexible working as well as recruiting new GPs with five-year support programmes.