GPs in Deal are urging residents to write to MP Charlie Elphicke for reassurance that something effective will be done to improve the recruitment and retention of doctors.

Doctors from Balmoral Surgery, St Richards Road Surgery and the Cedars Surgery have, this week, written to KentOnline's sister paper the East Kent Mercury raising their concerns about how primary care will be staffed in the future.

Their concerns come as health secretary Jeremy Hunt is proposing to cut the GP trainee supplement – a bonus which brings GP trainees pay in-line with trainees in other specialities and makes up a large proportion of their salary.

The letter reads: “We are writing with grave concerns as to what is being planned or left to chance for our NHS.

“Current plans are to reduce the investment in junior doctor training, and specifically for us as GPs, the salaries of doctors training to be a GP by 20%. This will further reduce the number of young doctors wishing to train as a GP.”

Dr John Sharvill, who has been in the profession for 31 years, said: “We need to recruit GPs. We need to make it an attractive profession for people to go into or there will be an ever greater crisis than we’ve already got.”

He added: “We would like readers to write to the MP and the Prime Minister to raise concerns about staffing of practices in Deal and Dover and try and get a promise from them that the salary of doctors training to become GPs will not be cut.”

The letter continued: “At a local level many GPs in Deal, Dover and Shepway are nearing retirement and there is an on-going national shortage of young GPs.

“Many areas of the country have seen GP practices close because of this.

“The shape of the workforce is already changing with more nurse, paramedic and pharmacy practitioners, but even with this skill mix we are heading for a major staffing crisis.

“The government, and opposition parties, state that there will be 5,000 extra GPs.

“This is pure fiction and they must know this.”

Dr Sharvill highlighted that around four GPs in the Deal area are close to retirement and in a case of retirement last year, there were zero applicants to fill the position.

The letter also talks about the costs of privatisation.

It states: “Many aspects of our local health care have been improved by the use of additional (private) providers but the government is pressing ahead with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This means the NHS and CCG locally will have to offer contracts to multi-national companies or face court action. This will increase costs greatly and any decisions may affect the NHS for many years.

“If you share our concerns we ask you to contact your MP before it is too late.”

Mr Elphicke has said more people should be encouraged to be a part of the profession but has also suggested the doctors carry out more research.