ONE GP practice in Teignbridge only receives funding for 80 per cent of its patients, it has been revealed.

The figures came from MP Martin Wrigley who has been told the practice, which hasn’t been named, is funded for 3,200 patients but serves 4,000 people.

Details emerged as he met GP practice managers from local surgeries at Kingskerswell Health Centre to discuss the challenges faced by primary care providers.

He said: ‘What other organisation would be able to survive like this?’

There is a national GP shortage with doctors leaving the profession to retire or moving to private practice.

The number of patients per full-time GP has increased from approximately 1,800 in 2019 to 2,400.

The meeting focused on the government’s announcement of an additional £889 million in funding for GPs which Mr Wrigley argued falls short of addressing the real costs faced by surgeries.

He said: ‘The Government promised an uplift in funding, but when you work out the numbers, it just doesn’t cover the extra costs they are facing.’

He criticised the government’s approach, saying: ‘By taking money from the Quality Outcome Framework (QOF) and placing it into the core contract, after the National Insurance hit and increasing energy and staff costs, there’s not enough to sustain services.

‘The government is just rearranging the deckchairs.’

He described the current funding model as ‘unsustainable, unfunded, and unsafe’.

GP surgeries are particularly facing difficulties in recruiting GP partners due to financial pressures.

Mr Wrigley said GP partners can earn much less than minimum wage after shouldering increasing costs related to running a business.

He also criticised the funding formula, in use since 2004, for failing to adapt to modern demands.

He said: ‘Practice managers are literally juggling numbers to make it work.

‘Some surgeries are short of a full-time GP, imagine the impact on patients. No wonder it can be so difficult to get an appointment.’

It is claimed the current funding model fails to take into account various factors, including increasing population.