A YORK GP said he and his colleagues are serious about quitting the NHS unless their work is better resourced.

Dr Aaron Brown, a partner at Clifton Medical Practice, spoke after taking part in a vote at the Local Medical Committees (LMC) conference in London.

The emergency conference saw LMC members from across the country air their frustrations.

Dr Brown, who is one of nine family doctors on the York LMC, said: "We voted that general practice in the UK was not sustainable or safe and so we are calling for all GPs on mass to sign undated resignations from NHS service."

Asked if the resignation threat was a real prospect, Dr Brown replied: "Yes it is, otherwise we wouldn't just say it willy nilly.

"We are operating at a level that we don't think is safe any more.

"There are not enough of us.

"The Government has promised 5,000 new GPs, but I don't see how they can achieve that.

"The training schemes are under subscribed and about 30 per cent of us are due to retire in the next five years."

At 31, Dr Brown of the younger GPs around, and he feels more must be done to recruit family doctors from his generation.

He said: "We get eight per cent of the NHS budget to do 95 per cent of the work.

"The budget is £136 per patient per year.

"They say that GPs are the jewel in the NHS crown and I believe in that.

"Everything does come through us, but at the moment it is not sustainable."

The conference saw Dr Chaand Nagpaul, head of the British Medical Association’s general practice committee, warn that patients are “are being short-changed on a daily basis”.

Dr Nagpaul cited research that found 90 per cent of GPs felt their workload was damaging the quality of care they provided, something he said was "a disgrace".

GPs, he claimed, were having to deal with complicated cases in 10 minutes, treat a "conveyor belt" of up to 70 patients a day plus administration, with understaffed practices forced to continue to register patients.

"To put it simply, it is not safe to carry on the way we are, and which is why this conference is highlighting that general practice is quite literally in a state of emergency," he said.