Health minister John Hutton has revealed Worthing missed out on a scheme to recruit new GPs by a tiny margin.

Worthing has a long-standing problem with recruitment and retention of doctors.

The town's plight was raised in a Commons debate earlier this year by Tim Loughton, MP for Worthing East and Shoreham.

He warned GPs were under so much pressure they were ready to "snap" and that 90 per cent of doctors in West Sussex were planning to retire early.

But there was shock earlier this month when Worthing was missed off a list of areas eligible to offer GPs a £10,000 payment for starting work in the area, called a golden hello, even though it was made available in other parts of Sussex.

Mr Loughton immediately tabled a parliamentary question asking ministers to justify the decision.

Now they have revealed Worthing fell just outside the complicated guidelines used to decide which primary care group areas should benefit from the scheme.

It missed out by having too many GPs per 100,000 head of population.

But Worthing only has less than two extra doctors for the specified number of residents.

Mr Hutton said: "The primary care trusts or groups eligible for the under-doctored additional payment are those that have fewer than the national median number of GPs.

"The national median is 52.695 GPs per 100,000 population. Worthing has 54.35."

Mr Hutton said the area would still be allowed to offer a payment worth £5,000 to new GPs.

The areas which are entitled to offer £10,000, a £5,000 special payment plus the £5,000 on offer throughout England, include Brighton and Hove, Adur and Arun.

Also singled out for extra help are Bexhill and Rother, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings and St Leonards and Bognor.