GP practices in Bolton have fewer patients on average than almost anywhere else in the country, figures show.

NHS Digital figures show 317,939 patients were registered at the 49 GP practices in the NHS Bolton CCG area, as of the end of June.

This meant each GP team was dealing with an average of 6,489 patients each – though this was up slightly from 6,454 in June 2020.

But that was still one of the lowest averages of all CCGs in the country, and well below NHS Portsmouth CCG, in the South East, where each practice had around 17,699 patients each.

The NHS figures also reveal how one practice in Bolton has around 13 times as many patients as another.

Unsworth Group Practice has the most patients registered, with 20,436, while 3D Medical Centre has the fewest – 1,629.

Across England, 60.8 million patients were registered at 6,571 facilities in June – equating to an average of 9,258 people per practice.

This was up 2.4 per cent on a year previously, and the highest figure since comparable quarterly records began in 2015.

The British Medical Association said a rapid expansion of the GP workforce across England is needed, as the number of patients per practice hit a new national record.

Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA’s GP committee said: “The differences seen throughout England reflect the overall workforce crisis, which has been troubling for over a decade now.

"Numbers of GPs are falling while demand rises, leaving us with a severe shortage.

"With a growing and ageing population, only a medical workforce expansion will give us hope that we can offer good quality care to everyone in the future.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said the new Office for Health Promotion – to be launched later this year – will "level up the health of the nation" and close disparities.

A spokeswoman added: “We have invested £270 million to expand GP capacity, on top of the £1.5 billion for extra staff until 2023-24.

“The highest ever number of doctors accepted a place on GP speciality training in 2020 and we are committed to increasing the number of training places available to 4,000 a year, as well as targeting recruitment in hard-to-recruit areas."