Record numbers of GP surgeries closing as ‘system creaks’

GP surgery closures across the UK have reached an all-time high, impacting more than 500,000 patients last year, new research has found.

A record 138 GP surgeries shut down last year, at a rate of more than two a week, says the medical website Pulse. Over the last six years, 585 practices have gone, covering a population of nearly 1.9m people. Just 13 surgeries closed in 2013.

The Guardian says GPs blame “under-resourcing and recruitment difficulties”. Sky News agrees: “an on-going recruitment crisis has been blamed for the closures”.

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The closures come “just as pressure on GPs is increasing because the population is both growing and ageing”, The Daily Mail says.

Many smaller practices – those serving fewer than 5,000 patients – are merging with others to survive. Freedom of information requests revealed that smaller surgeries were the worst affected in 2018, accounting for 86% of closures.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs said: “These figures are sad but, unfortunately, not surprising.” She added that GPs “are working to our absolute limits to provide safe, high-quality care” and said that “when a practice closes… it's heartbreaking”.

Rachel Power of the Patients Association, said: “Patients will be right to feel alarmed. Many may be left wondering if their practice might be next.” She said the closures could “push more towards A&E – which we know is under severe pressure itself”.

Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said: “Some elderly and vulnerable people will find it impossible to get the bus miles across town to a new location and new GP.” Dr Jackie Applebee, a GP from Tower Hamlets, said: “The system is creaking.”

NHS England disputed Pulse’s figures. “In England there were fewer practice closures and patient dispersals in 2017/18 compared with 2016/17 and we continue to support all general practices to help them thrive,” it said. “Thousands of practices continue to be helped through the GP resilience programme, where investment has been increased from a planned £8m in 2019/20 to £13m.”

However, as The Guardian points out, NHS England’s data is for England alone and covers the financial year, whereas Pulse’s figures are for the whole of the UK and cover calendar years.

Separate figures released yesterday showed that the NHS lost a net 441 fully-qualified GPs in the last year. Further surgery closures are planned for the coming weeks in Birmingham, North London, Coventry, Oxfordshire, Cornwall and Dorset.