200 SURGERIES A YEAR ARE CUT
GPs ‘at breaking point’
MORE than 200 doctors’ practices across England have shut in the last year.
Just eight new surgeries opened, while 202 closed or merged. Doctors’ leaders said it showed “the service is at breaking point”.
They blamed a growing number of patients and a lack of funding for the crisis. The North was particularly badly hit, with more than 60 practices closing or merging, while more than 50 shut in the South East.
Those that opened were found to be mainly in the Midlands and eastern England.
NHS England data shows that during the same period more patients became registered with GPs across the country.
An investigation earlier this year suggested more than a quarter of a million patients may have been forced to change surgery in 2016.
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, from the Royal College of GPs, said many practices could no longer cope “with ever-growing patient demand without necessary funding and resources”.
She said an extra £2.4billion a year funding and 5,000 more GPs were needed “as a matter of urgency”. Last year, NHS England announced a £500million “turnaround package” to help struggling surgeries, including those at risk of closure.
But Dr Richard Vautrey, from the British Medical Association, accused ministers of turning their backs on the problem.
He said: “The Government has long ignored GPs’ warnings that general practice is struggling to cope, but this is further evidence that the service is at breaking point.”
He added: “With over 200 practices closed or merged in the last year and many more struggling to manage their workload pressures, it is time for Government and NHS England to step up their efforts to resolve this crisis before even more patients lose their much-loved local GP service.”