Feed the poor, heat the frail and make poverty a priority are just some of the suggestions a group of senior doctors in Greater Manchester and Oldham have put to the new Prime Minister to prevent a widespread health catastrophe.

An open letter, spearheaded by Oldham GP Dr Zahid Chauhan, who recently donated his entire annual deputy mayoral allowance to Oldham Food Bank, is urging new Prime Minister Liz Truss to act on the cost-of-living crisis.

The GPs said it is their "professional and moral duty" to highlight the crisis as they estimate 80 per cent of their patients are enduring illness "intrinsically linked" to mental health problems which materialised during the pandemic but is now exacerbated by financial hardship.

The letter read: "Sadly, the situation has continued to worsen with new concerns around debt, paying household bills, universal debt and worries about pensions and lack of employment.

"We are gravely concerned that the ongoing cost-of-living crisis debacle and the impending rise in fuel bills could precipitate both physical and mental health morality.”

The group argue the squeeze on living costs is plunging patients into hardship and that they are seeing more patients with cases of malnutrition and hypothermia than ever before.

"The poorest are underfed and in very real danger of freezing to death in the coming winter", the letter stated.

However, signatories also argued the situation has become aggravated by a struggling primary care system where surgeries are "sinking under the weight of demand".

They feel that time restraints for appointments and an overreliance on increasingly struggling charities and voluntary organisations is adding to the mental health crisis across the country.

Dr Chauhan said: "As GPs, we feel so frustrated that we can only spare people with desperate emotional problems in just ten minutes.

“And filling in a survey and dispensing medication to avoid catastrophe is the archetypal sticker plaster over a wound.

“We signed up to do this job often out of vocation and a sense of duty to the sick and needy.

"It just takes an administration with the desire to truly support ailing surgeries and walk-in centres and do more for the needy to alleviate poverty.

“We cannot have the current situation, where the poor are feeding the poorest through unsustainable foodbanks.”

The letter has been signed by senior figureheads in the health industry from Greater Manchester and beyond, including Professor Donna Hall CBE, Dr Aseem Malhotra, Professor J S Bamrah CBE, Dr Amir Hannan MBE and Dr Tariq Chauhan MBBS, FRCS, FRCGP.

The letter concluded: “We will, as you witnessed during the pandemic, continue to perform our duties with precision, dedication, duty and care.

"Despair is not an option.

"However, we do call on you to deploy more resource into primary care and do more to assuage the suffering of the poorest in our society.

“Our door is open to Liz Truss, and we would be delighted to be the first appointment on her schedule, so that we can discuss these issues and show compassion to those who need it most.”