Morecambe Bay comes out on top for best patient:GP ratio in county

Procurement contract database Tracker analysed NHS Digital data from November 2022, to uncover which areas of England have the highest proportion of patients to every GP.

They looked at the total number of patients registered at GP practices throughout England and considered the total number of GPs working in each practice area.

East Lancashire was found to have the worst patient coverage across the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), with one GP to every 1,515 patients; or 263 GPs covering 398,556 registered patients.

Morecambe Bay on the other hand offers the best patient coverage in the area, at one GP for every to 1,196 patients.

Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB coverage ranked from best to worst:

Morecambe Bay (1 GP to 1,196 patients)

Blackburn With Darwen (1 GP to 1,371 patients)

Greater Preston (1 GP to 1,421 patients)

Blackpool (1 GP to 1,439 patients)

Fylde and Wyre (1 GP to 1,472 patients)

Chorley and South Ribble (1 GP to 1,490 patients)

West Lancashire (1 GP to 1,514 patients)

East Lancashire (1 GP to 1,515 patients)

The highest number of patients per GP in England was found to be in Hull, Humber and North Yorkshire (one GP to 2,063 patients), while the lowest was Wirral, Cheshire and Merseyside, with one GP to every 905 patients.

A spokesman for Tracker said: “By grouping patients and GPs by their Integrated Care Boards, this data offers a fascinating insight into which areas GPs are likely to be feeling the most strain, and where patients will more likely struggle to see a practitioner.

“The data, which looked at 62.2 million patient registrations across 106 different care boards, found that on average there is one GP for every 1,344 patients across England.

“GPs based in Hull were found to have 53.5% more patients each than the national average, while GPs based in Wirral appear to have 32.7% fewer patients, compared to the rest of England.

“While patients are not going to be split evenly among each GP, the findings offer an insight into which areas are likely to experience further pressure, if doctors are not encouraged to train and practise in these areas.”