GP practices could be forced either to close or to stop taking on new patients as a recruitment crisis threatens the number of doctors across Wales.

GP leaders have warned that more must be done to attract family doctors to Wales, as the profession is being stretched to its limit.

Unless we become self-sufficient in training GPs throughout Wales, I fear we will continue to fight a losing battle

Dr David Bailey

Their claims come as a British Medical Association survey shows family doctors face an uphill struggle to recruit colleagues to help them with their workload.

Surgeries in some areas have vacancies which have remained unfilled for months or even years.

Low pay and the stress of being on-call, especially overnight, are being cited as the reasons why medics are failing to take up posts.

The resulting staff shortage means that some GP practices are reluctant or unable to take on more patients.

The BMA's survey found that one medical practice in mid Wales took three years to find a partner.

Another in Gwent had to temporarily close its list - which meant not taking on any more patients - to limit the workload for those doctors caring for people on its register.

In the same area, a practice had only one applicant to its initial advertisement, and he did not return for a second interview.

The BMA found doctor posts have gone unfilled

Doctors at the surgery have since advised some patients to consider finding another GP.

Dr David Bailey, Chairman of Gwent Local Medical Committee, said: "Our principal problems in the Gwent valleys are the highest proportion of GPs in the UK aged 55 and over, and areas of high deprivation and morbidity.

"This is leading to vacancies with high workloads and poor infrastructure, which is bad news in a buyers' market.

"Unless we become self-sufficient in training GPs throughout Wales, I fear we will continue to fight a losing battle."

Dr Andrew Dearden, Chairman of the BMA's Welsh General Practitioners Committee, said: "The problem is that not enough has been done by the Welsh Assembly to encourage GPs to enter general practice in Wales over the past five to seven years.

Some practices are turning away new patients

"The GPC Wales has been warning the then Welsh Office and latterly the assembly of the impending recruitment problems for at least that long, but with little success.

"Funding to primary care and general practice has been siphoned away to meet spurious short-term targets set by politicians, mostly in the hospitals, instead of investing resources in long-term funding needs, for example having more GPs seeing patients at the "coal face".

"Recently there has been some progress in setting up incentives to attract new doctors into general practice and encouraging older doctors to remain in practice, but much more needs to be done."

Assembly Health Minister Jane Hutt said the assembly government was tackling the problem.

She said a whole range of measures were announced earlier this year to both recruit and retain more family doctors.

Jane Hutt said the problem is being tackled

Ms Hutt said more doctors were being trained, "golden hellos" were being offered to those deciding to become GPs and that they were also being given help with student debt they had accumulated.

She added that older doctors were being offered money to stay in the profession.

And she said she was confident that a new GP contract and NHS structural changes would help to make the profession more attractive.