The busiest GP surgeries in each borough of Greater Manchester - with most patients per doctor revealed

The GP surgeries in each borough of Greater Manchester with most patients per doctor have been identified in NHS figures.

Analysis of the snapshot figures published by NHS Digital on 31 August this year show which surgery has the highest patient-to-doctor ratio for the area covered by each of the 10 integrated care boards (ICBs) which commission healthcare services across the city-region.

However, this is only one way of looking at how busy a surgery is. Most 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. Alternatively, they may have been in the process of recruiting when they supplied their staffing figures to the NHS

Regionally, the North West has the fewest patients per GP in England, at 1,557.

But nationally health bodies are warning that many GP practices are having to take on too many patients.

Professor Martin Marshall, who chairs the Royal College of GPs, said: “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.”