Patients may face struggle to re-register with new GPs

A DOCTORS’ chief says patients could struggle to find new GPs after plans to close a city surgery were revealed.

Stobswell Medical Practice will shut its doors in March after Dr Peter Fox, the only remaining GP based there, decided to terminate his contract — having run the facility on his own for some time.

It means that 2,500 people will be forced to re-register with other practices, despite some in Dundee having closed lists and not accepting new patients.

Dr Andrew Cowie, chairman of Tayside Local Medical Committee and himself a GP at Hawkhill Medical Practice, told the Tele he had concerns about the impact of the closure.

He said: “The closure of the practice has been on the cards for a few years now. Stobswell Practice was run single-handedly by Dr Fox, which the NHS will always try to avoid if possible.

“There have been a lot of discussions about what will now happen to the practice’s 2,500 patients from across Dundee.

“The main problem is we just do not know what the plan is at this stage.

“The number of patients who will now need to find new GPs may also be a problem given that so many local practices are struggling to recruit enough doctors themselves.

“We are currently holding meetings with the other local practices and the NHS to try to help with the issue as much as we can.”

The Tele told yesterday that NHS Tayside had taken the decision to close the practice after running out of options for the facility.

Practice manager Lorraine Mackay said: “This is terrible news for us and we are very upset for our 2,500 patients.

“It’s now up to NHS Tayside to try to find other GP practices which can take our patients.

“We are very upset at the situation but our priority is to work towards getting patient records passed to other surgeries if NHS Tayside can find other places for our patients to go.

“We have been trying to recruit another GP during all that time but without success.

“Now, Dr Fox has decided to hand his contract back to the health board.

“As a result, it has decided to close us down.”

NHS Tayside said affected patients would be contacted.