Give us extra cash or we’ll stop taking new patients, says GP union

SENIOR GPs are warning they will stop accepting new patients unless they get more funding.

The British Medical Association has told Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that surgeries across England are prepared to close their lists ‘en masse’.

The union claims that up to £12billion promised by the Government last spring has failed to materialise.

Patient demand is ‘unprecedented’, GPs are retiring or quitting and surgery buildings are falling apart, it adds.

In a letter on its website signed by Dr Richard Vautrey, head of the BMA’s GP Committee, he states: ‘Practices are reaching the point where closing their lists seems the only viable way to ensure patient safety. With unprecedented patient demand, a recruitment and retention crisis, huge workforce shortfalls and major practice premises problems, it is no wonder that GPs are having to consider action such as suspending their patient lists.’

Surgeries across England are overwhelmed due to the rising and ageing population on top of a national shortage of GPs.

The Government has repeatedly promised to recruit an extra 5,000 family doctors by 2020/21 but the most recent figures show they are quitting at a rate of 400 a month.

The Department of Health said: ‘We’ve committed an extra £2.4 billion of funding by 2020/21 and are working closely with the sector to improve patient care and services. We would urge the BMA to consider the impact of list closures and the detrimental effect it could have on communities.’

‘Detrimental effect on communities’