The town where every GP plans to bar new patients

DOCTORS: WE WON’T TAKE ON ANY MORE PATIENTS

ALL the GP surgeries in a town are planning to close their lists to new patients.

The seven practices in Folkestone, Kent, say that they believe the move is necessary to maintain safe care for their 16,000 existing patients.

They have applied to NHS bosses to suspend new patient registrations indefinitely.

It comes after the Daily Mail reported last Thursday that almost half of GPs in England said they were prepared to close their lists in protest at a lack of government funding.

The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, which organised the survey of GPs, is now considering whether to call on all family doctors to close their lists temporarily.

Surgeries in Folkestone have applied to close their lists independently because they are collectively short of 16 family doctors and cannot cope with the rising demand, Pulse magazine reported.

Pressures intensified in May when they were ordered to take on an extra 4,700 patients from the nearby Folkestone East Family Practice, which closed due to a shortage of doctors.

Officials at the South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group will consider the cases of all seven practices. If they believe patient safety would be

Thursday’s Daily Mail jeopardised, the applications would be approved.

This would mean any new patients moving to the area would be unable to register with a local GP. They would have to travel to surrounding towns or villages – assuming practices there have space.

The seven practices issued a joint statement which said they ‘have taken the unprecedented action of applying to South Kent Coast CCG for formal list closure in order to maintain safe patient care to their current patient population’.

It added: ‘We all feel that as a consequence of the national GP shortage which has been acutely felt in Folkestone, with a shortage of 16 full-time equivalent GPs we have no other option in thet interest of patient safety.’

The seven practices are: Central Surgery, Guildhall Street Surgery, Hawkinge and Elham Surgery, Manor Clinic, The New Surgery, Park Farm Surgery and Sandgate Road Surgery.

The population of Folkestone is increasing by 0.5 per cent year on year, which is slightly lower than the national average.

The main reason for the pressures is the severe shortage of GPs in the town. Older doctors have retired and it has struggled to attract replacements. GPs across England say they are in crisis due to the rising demand of the ageing population and a shortage of doctors.

They are also angry at the Government for failing to invest enough money in surgeries – while expecting them to open for longer hours at evenings and weekends.

Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA’s GP committee said: ‘This crisis in Folkestone highlights why four out of ten GP practices in England told the BMA in a survey last week that they were considering applying to have their practice lists closed because their services are at breaking point.’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned doctors against closing their lists, because of the impact on patients.