Retiring GPs fuel patient crisis

Quarter of a million people lose local practice as record numbers of surgeries shut amid pension clampdown

RECORD numbers of GP practices are closing, following a rise in the number of doctors retiring early ahead of a tax clampdown on pension pots, new figures show.

More than 250,000 patients have been “displaced” by surgery closures in the last year, amid plummeting GP numbers, new figures show. In total, the number of practices closing has risen five-fold since 2013.

Senior doctors last night said communities were being left bereft, with elderly patients increasingly enduring long journeys to see a doctor, and longer waiting times.

The exodus follows a change to pensions which has led to a sharp rise in the number of GPs retiring early to reduce their tax burden. Since 2012, the cap on what savers can amass without being taxed has dropped from £1.8 million to £1 million.

Last year, a report by the King’s Fund found that 15.5 per cent of GPs aged between 55 and 59 had left the profession in 2014 – twice the rate of a decade ago. Meanwhile, the numbers retiring or going part-time is failing to be matched by that of new recruits.

GP leaders said the situation was a “tragedy” amid claims the NHS is “falling apart at the seams”.

Joyce Robins, from Patient Concern, said the situation was particularly devastating for older patients who were unable to travel and who had been seeing the same doctor for decades.

“There is a critical shortage of GPs – and we are getting to the point where it will be impossible to see one,” she said.

In the last year, the total number of family doctors has fallen by 400, despite targets to boost numbers by 5,000 amid rising demand. The new figures, from Pulse magazine, show a five-fold rise in closures of GP practices since 2013.

In total, 92 practices closed last year, with 57 shutting completely and the rest closing as a result of mergers into “super surgeries”. This compares with 20 such closures in 2013.

As a result, 265,000 patients saw their practice close last year, compared with 43,000 in 2013.

Among the areas severely affected is Brighton, which has lost seven surgeries in two years.

Last month, ministers disclosed plans for England’s 7,500 surgeries to become 1,500 “superhubs”. Health officials claimed the move would not see the closure of thousands of practices as they work more closely together.

But the new figures show a steep rise in closures, while the average number of patients per practice has risen by almost 20 per cent in a decade.

Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Unfortunately, too many practices are being forced to close because GPs and their teams can no longer cope with ever-growing patient demand without the necessary funding and workforce to deal with it.”

Meanwhile, the Nuffield Trust said A&E units closed almost 500 times from December to February, twice the average figure for the past three years.