A BOROUGH councillor has called on more Thurrock doctors to start having face-to-face meetings with patients, despite the release of new figures which show the area is in the midst of GP crisis.

Thurrock is the second worst area in the country in terms on the number of resdients and available doctors, pipped only by Portsmouth.

A report to Thurrock Council's health and wellbeing overview and scrutiny committee by Steven Porter, interim alliance director at the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System, showed Thurrock has 39 GPs per 100,000 people against Portsmouth's 40. At the other end of the spectrum, Wirral has 80 GPs.

Speaking at the meeting Mr Porter, said: "That's not adequate and results in more difficulty accessing GPs and potentially longer waiting times for appointments so it's not a good position at the moment.

"One of the overarching reasons is that GP contracts are not with Mid and South Essex, they are with NHS England. GPs are in fact small businesses and they can't be compelled to work anywhere so we've got these variations in patient to clinician ratios.

Not being face-t0-face didn't appear to be a problem for officers and speakers at the health committee meeting as they participated online.

"In Thurrock the age profile of GPs tend to be older and with the proximity to London GPs can earn London weighting if they go a few miles down the road."

Mr Porter said Healthwatch UK had raised the issue nationally.

Locally, GP recruitment and retainment measures are being looked at and 31,000 new phone lines are being made available for patients to make GP appointments.

Mr Porter added GP apprenticeships with Anglia Ruskin University will result in 12 GP fellows working from Corringham Integrated Medical and Wellbeing Centre.

Committee chairman, Cllr Shane Ralph, said: "As councillors we get contacted by residents saying they can't get hold of their GP or they're put on a telephone call and this leads to things maybe being missed.

"I really do feel we need to push back to physical appointments. I know if you have a cough you can maybe go to a pharmacy to get something but you can't beat a doctor listening to your chest with a stethoscope to actually find out what's going on and then recommending an X-ray. We need to get back onto that. Too many people are being misdiagnosed.

"People are using A&E as a surgery because people have lost confidence in doctors. They want a physical meeting with a GP."