Doctors warn rural GP practice closures cause harm

Doctors are warning that the loss of rural GP practices will put patients at risk, after a North Yorkshire medical practice shut its doors and left 1,600 people needing a new GP.

Reeth Medical Centre closed in May when its GP partner Dr Mike Brookes retired after 18 years.

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) was unable to find a replacement doctor to keep the practice open.

Dr Brian McGregor, North Yorkshire member of the British Medical Association (BMA) GPs committee, said: "There is an absolute risk in North Yorkshire that we will see practice after practice close and it will be harder and harder to maintain services purely because they are not financially sustainable under the current model."

According to the BMA, around 10 million people live in rural settlements in England, and a fifth of GPs work in predominantly rural areas.

Patients in rural areas can live many miles away from their GP surgeries, which can make care for elderly patients and those with complex needs difficult.

Dr Jonathan Pain, the lead partner at Central Dales Practice which has now set up a branch surgery at the former Reeth site, said: "The closure of one local practice has a knock-on impact on another.

"We didn't have the space or staff to cope with 1,600 extra patients without additional help from the ICB."

He added: "We were already one GP down and it is becoming harder to recruit, with local amenities and services decimated it's not as attractive a job as it once was, so it was a stretch to take on so many people.

"Working in rural general practice does mean being isolated both professionally and geographically and it seems this is another huge factor putting people off."

BMA data shows that since 2015 in England 1,474 independent community GP practices have closed or merged as of June this year, leaving 6,149 practices remaining.

McGregor said: "I think the problem is you take it for granted that wherever you live there'll be a GP.

"But when the GP is suddenly half an hour's drive away and down a road that may well be blocked in the winter by floods or by snow, it starts to get a little more disconcerting."

He added: "Practices in rural areas must receive the funding they need to allow them to employ a sufficient number of GPs, so potential closures are prevented, and patients can receive the care they need, wherever they might live."

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