GP surgery closures in UK ‘hit all-time high’ in 2018
Many of the areas, which are most heavily challenged by this phenomenon are in rural areas. It’s a cause for great long-term concern. This story tells us:
GP surgery closures across the UK have reached an all-time high, affecting an estimated half a million patients last year, research has found. An investigation by the medical website Pulse found 138 doctors’ premises shut their doors in 2018, compared with 18 in 2013.
GPs said under-resourcing and recruitment difficulties were forcing surgeries to close. They said many smaller practices were merging with others to survive, which allowed them to avoid having to disperse their patient list to other practices much further away.
Data released by 186 out of 217 clinical commissioning groups and health boards, following freedom of information requests, revealed that smaller surgeries – those serving 5,000 or fewer patients – were the worst affected in 2018, accounting for 86% of closures.
Pulse calculated that last year’s closures affected about 519,500 patients. Thirty-one of the 138 surgery closures in 2018 came as a result of mergers, the figures showed, which affected an estimated 161,126 patients.
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said the figures were sad but unsurprising. “GPs and our teams are working to our absolute limits to provide safe, high-quality care, while general practice is under intense pressure, and this is resulting in some GPs leaving the profession, and in other cases forcing them to close their surgery doors,” she said.