LANCASHIRE doctors have accused politicians of making “unachievable and headline grabbing promises” ahead of the General Election.

It comes after a large-scale survey by the British Medical Association (BMA) found that a third of GPs are considering retirement in the next five years.

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Nationally, about one in five trainees said they were considering working abroad before 2020, while a third said they would not recommend it as a career, with a further 18 per cent of participants unsure.

The BMA said the results question the feasibility of election pledges that promise to dramatically increase the number of GPs in the next five years.

Dr David Wrigley, the BMA’s spokesman for Lancashire, said: “It is clear that incredible pressures on GP services are at the heart of this workforce crisis, with escalating demand having far outstripped capacity.” .

“Rather than making unachievable, headline-grabbing promises, we need politicians to focus on addressing the pressures facing GP services, so we retain the current GP workforce and tempt young doctors to become GPs.”

The BMA pointed out that it takes five to eight years to train a GP, so it is not possible to create thousands of GPs in this timeframe”.

The survey questioned 15,560 GPs, with almost three in 10 currently working full-time saying they are thinking about moving to part-time hours and 7 per cent considering quitting medicine altogether.