A GP has been hired to help inner-city Bradford promote better health and reduce the stress of over-worked doctors.

The £750,000 scheme will run for three years as part of the city's Health Action Zones, which are aimed at helping patients and doctors alike.

The recruitment and retention scheme co-ordinator will find six fully-trained GPs to help out in busy inner-city practices, often where one GP works on his or her own caring for large numbers of patients.

The so-called "host practice" will have to agree to improvements in services for patients in return for getting an extra doctor working part of the week.

The scheme aims to provide better care for patients, as well as cutting doctor's stress levels.

John Hearnshaw, senior planning manager for primary care at Bradford Health Authority, said although the average GP in the district had 1,900 patients on his or her list, single-handed practitioners could have as many as 3,500.

"We take the view that it's not possible to provide high quality, 21st century primary care at those levels," he said. "We anticipate that demand for these doctors will outstrip supply."

The scheme, which hopes to have new doctors in place by August, comes amid claims that GPs suffer huge levels of stress.

A study of 20 northern GPs undertaken by Chrystal Frost and Dr Nigel King, of Huddersfield University's Primary Care Research Group, revealed GPs hid their emotions behind a facade of professional neutrality which could lead to internal problems and stress.

Their report found symptoms of "burnout", including relationship problems and alcoholism, among the majority of the GPs sampled.

It is this hidden problem in the health service that has brought about schemes such as this.

But statistics suggest this district does not have as big a problem as the rest of West Yorkshire. Out of 288 family doctors in the area, there are only vacancies for one part-time and two full-time GPs. This is a far lower rate than elsewhere in the county.

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