A recent survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has found that 80 per cent of respondents said they have insufficient resources to provide high quality patient care, which the College said highlights a growing crisis in general practice.

The survey found that almost half of the GPs polled admitted they had cut back on the range of services they provide for patients, while 70 per cent of doctors said they expected patient waiting times to increase.

The RCGP said that this shows that general practice is at “breaking point” and has called for the Government to pump in emergency funds, similar to the £500 million bailout given to A&E departments last week.

According to the RCGP, doctors in general practice are “grappling with a double whammy of spiralling workloads and dwindling resources”, meaning that the profession does not have the capacity to take on any more work without the extra funding and resources to back it up.

However, in response to the publication of the survey results, a spokesman for NHS England said that it fully recognises that demands and patterns of healthcare are changing, and that this is increasing pressure on parts of the NHS.

He said that that is why NHS England has recently published a ‘call to action’ about the future of general practice to help stimulate new, innovative approaches to providing services and ensuring every patient gets the care they need.

The key aim of the call to action is to enable GP practices to provide more coordinated care for people with more complex needs, as well as to provide more accessible and responsive service, in conjunction with partners in community and social care, he added.