The average GP now works a four day week, fuelling shortages of doctors, health officials say.

The head of Health Education England (HEE) said the millennial generation did not want to work the hours done by baby boomers.

The average doctor now works four days a week, when it used to be around four and a half, health officials said.

As a result of this, the number of full-time-equivalent doctors in the system has reduced.

Professor Ian Cumming said: "Our workforce are choosing to work fewer hours. Part of this is because of generation Y and Z and millennials starting to come through, who are increasingly not wanting to work the same number of hours that many of the baby boomers and generation X want to work."

The average GP worked 90 per cent of full-time hours in 2009, NHS data shows - equivalent to four and a half days.

But now the figure is 83 per cent, Prof Cumming said - which is closer to a four day week.

The chief executive said that overall, the NHS has seen a 10 per cent reduction in clinical hours worked by GPs in recent years.

Professor Cumming told delegates at NHS Confederation’s conference in Liverpool: "Another way of putting that is you’re dealing with 10 per cent more patients, you’re under 10 per cent more pressure."