One GP surgery has shut its doors every week since Labour took power, a new analysis reveals.
Figures compiled by the Liberal Democrats show 81 GP surgeries have closed in just 18 months - more than one a week - as practices struggle with soaring costs, rising patient numbers and National Insurance hike introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves - dubbed the “jobs tax” by critics.
The party says the closures are piling fresh strain onto remaining practices, which are now coping with an average of 200 additional patients each.
The Midlands has been hardest hit, losing 16 surgeries. The Northeast and Yorkshire have seen 14 closures, while the Southeast has lost 13. Every region is feeling the squeeze, the new research shows.
It comes as Liberal Democrat figures also show long waits for a GP appointment have soared under Labour with eight million patients facing delays of more than four weeks - up 300,000 (4.2 percent) since the same months in 2024.
It means one in every 13 appointments (7.5 per cent) led to a wait of more than a month, while one in every five (20.9 per cent) took place at least two weeks after they were booked.
Critics warn that as patients struggle to get a GP appointment they are either turning up at overwhelmed A&E departments or missing diagnoses altogether.
Last November saw record numbers attending emergency departments - more than 75,000 people a day - with just seven in 10 seen within four hours, well below target. Scores of ambulances have recently been diverted to other hospitals because of pressure.
The Liberal Democrats say the figures on general practice represent a “damning failure” by the Labour government to improve access.
Critics warn that as patients struggle to get a GP appointment they are either turning up at overwhelmed A&E departments or missing diagnoses altogether
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Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said: “Up and down the country, GP surgeries are closing, leaving patients helpless and without the care they need - it’s a disgrace.
“GP services were left teetering on the edge by the Conservatives, but the fact that surgeries are closing every week represents a damning failure by this Labour government too.”
The party described the situation as a “crisis” and is calling for a GP “rescue package” to ensure patients can see a GP within seven days or 24 hours if urgent.
The Lib Dems are proposing recruiting and retaining 8,000 more doctors, introducing a legal right to see a GP within seven days - or within 24 hours if urgent - and creating a dedicated fund to reopen surgeries in underserved areas.
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The Lib Dems want GP practices exempted from the National Insurance rise, using amendments to Budget legislation
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They also want GP practices exempted from the National Insurance rise, using amendments to Budget legislation.
Professor Carl Heneghan of Oxford University says the GP funding model is at the heart of the crisis.
“General practice remains underfunded compared to other NHS services,” he said.
“Compare the £11billion that delivers 350 million appointments to the UK Health Security budget of £3.4billion for no appointments and no patient-facing care.
“GPs carry out 82 per cent of the NHS work with only 9.5 percent of the NHS budget and although funding has increased its share of the NHS budget has fallen by more than 2 percent compared to 2015/16.
“Something is seriously wrong with GP funding, and you cannot run a service with such an underfunded resource.”
“We urgently need more GPs and more funding for GPs,” he said.
He added: “We have an aging population with increasing numbers of people with chronic diseases.
"We need an appropriate level of funding for GP care otherwise people will continue to turn up at accident and emergency, or we will increasingly miss diseases like heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, and cancer until it is too late to change the course of what will happen next.”
He argued that GP surgeries offer “remarkable value”.
“It costs £155-£160 per patient per year. I cannot get my dog insured for that price - as this costs between £330-£470 a year.
"This is the equivalent to 30 to 60p per day for every GP patient to deliver - there is nothing else in healthcare that will be this price.”
Dr Richard Vautrey, former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: "GP practices are stretched and need investment to allow the rest of the health service to thrive.
"Practices are increasingly being forced to merge due to financial difficulties which make it unviable for them to continue.
"This means that many patients are often having to travel further to get the help they need."
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "The majority of GP practice closures are the result of mergers, which typically account for around three quarters of closures.
"After years of neglect, we are giving general practices the support they desperately need - a £1.1billion boost, the biggest funding increase in more than a decade.
"We are fixing the front door of the NHS by improving continuity of care, cutting red tape that ties up GPs time and recruiting 3,000 GPs into work in the past year - we now have the highest number of fully qualified GPs since at least 2015.
"Thanks to action taken by this Government, patient satisfaction is up for the first time in a decade."