17 of the busiest GP surgeries in Chesterfield and Derbyshire – including those with over 5,000 patients per GP

New data has shown that some over-subscribed Chesterfield and north Derbyshire surgeries have more than 5,000 patients for every full-time equivalent GP – significantly more than the nationwide average of 1,719.

Professor Martin Marshall, who chairs the Royal College of GPs, said that GP shortages need to be addressed to ensure that patients receive the care they require.

“GPs want to be able to consistently give their patients the personalised care they deserve, no matter where they live in the country. But the increased workload expected of GPs and their teams, coupled with the chronic shortage of GPs, is unsustainable.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Each General Practice is required to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of its patients. There is no government recommendation for how many patients should be assigned to a GP, as the demands each patient places on their GP are different and can be affected by many different factors – including rurality and patient demographics.”

These are 17 of the busiest surgeries in Chesterfield and north Derbyshire – ranked according to the most registered patients per GP.

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The figures include trainee GPs and locums – and many surgeries will also have other staff treating patients, such as nurses, physiotherapists and midwives. Sometimes, a surgery might appear to have a low number of GPs because they share staff with a neighbouring practice, or they may have been in the process of recruiting when they supplied their staffing figures to the NHS.