GPs will shut one of sites to save cash

A cash-strapped GP practice serving 9,000 patients in Gateshead is set to close one of its two sites.

Glenpark Medical Practice is poised to shut the Dunston Medical Centre in a bid to save £40,000 a year and ensure the entire practice is not forced to close.

A new health centre for the area – which will replace the outdated Glenpark Medical Centre in Ravensworth Road – is due to open in December, but the practice’s second facility 0.7 miles away is now also earmarked for closure in January.

Health bosses say that the plans will ensure that the practice can remain financially viable, having suffered a £175,000 drop in income due to changes in how the NHS is funded, and also improve efficiency.

Glenpark GP Dr Jonathan Harness told a Gateshead Council overview and scrutiny meeting yesterday: “If we reduce staff that impacts on patient care and that is the last thing we want to do. We are a high-performing practice that cares for our patients.

“The only other way we can make a big impact on our costs is to reduces premises costs.”

He added: “It will free up £40,000 a year to be reinvested in patients and keep us sustainable. Without doing these quite dramatic things we might find that mediumsized practices like our could find it very hard to continue.

“Closing Glenpark would be devastating for the 9,127 patients. We don’t wish to get far enough down the line that that becomes thinkable.

“We are nowhere near that yet, but we have to take action now not to get to that point.”

Dr Harness said that amalgamating Glenpark’s services into one new health centre will mean that doctors and nurses do not waste time driving between two practices and that fewer appointments are missed.