BRADFORD is in the grip of a GP crisis with patients unable to get an appointment, the Health Secretary has admitted.

Jeremy Hunt picked out the city as one of the places with the worst shortages of family doctors, as he promised a “new deal” to tackle the problem.

Under the plans, an extra 5,000 new GPs and another 5,000 support staff, including practice nurses, will be recruited across England.

But, in return, doctors will be required to accept plans for weekend opening, which involves groups of practices pooling together to share the extended hours.

Furthermore, the announcement fell short of an expectation that “golden hellos” – extra payments – would be offered to work in areas with too few GPs.

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Inner-city Bradford is sixth worst on that list, with only 0.45 doctors per 1,000 patients, significantly lower than the national average of 0.58.

Mr Hunt pointed to the “striking figure” for Bradford, after research to identify “under-doctored areas”.

He said: “If you compare Bradford and Sheffield – two cities only 40 miles apart - Sheffield has 50 per cent more GPs per head than Bradford.

“And that means people in Bradford will be waiting too long to see their GP

“That’s why we are announcing incentives in training – something very popular with young GPs - to encourage people to go to the areas here there are the biggest shortages of doctors.”

However, the Department of Health (DH) said only that it would “explore the idea of targeted financial incentives to attract doctors into areas of greatest need”, rather than announcing payments.

Dr Richard Vautrey the British Medical Association (BMA) representative for Yorkshire, said Mr Hunt’s announcement was mainly “the emperor’s new clothes”.

He added: “It’s heartening that he has recognised the problem, but disappointing that he has not worked out a financial solution to address it.

“People in Bradford are struggling to get a routine appointment in the daytime, because doctors tend to gravitate to more affluent areas in the south east.”

And Dr Akram Khan, clinical chairman of NHS Bradford City clinical commissioning group (CCG), said: “We are unable to fill all the training places and many GPs then decide to work elsewhere, leaving local practices with a shortage of GPs.”

Earlier this year, an official survey that more than one in five patients in parts of Bradford are unable to book a slot at a surgery when they need one.

Patients are being turned away on thousands of occasions each year in central areas of the city, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).