An overstretched practice has had to crack down on registered patients no longer in the surgery catchment area in order to cope with demand from the rapidly rising local population.
Quarryfoot practice in Bonnyrigg, Scotland has written to around 140 patients so far who have remained on the practice list despite moving or after changes in the practice’s boundary, asking them to register elsewhere.
The two partner practice has seen their list size grow by more than 300 patients since 2011.
Bonnyrigg and Lasswade community council chairman Darius Namdaran told Edinburgh Evening News: ‘Bonnyrigg GPs do a good job but are not keeping up with the 8.3% population boom.
Quarryfoot practice manager Alison Murphy said they had previously been able to keep patients outside the boundary on their list, but added: ‘Our list size has grown to such an extent that we had to look at doing something as we didn’t want to have to say we were full up.
‘We do realise it is difficult for patients but we do not have much choice.’
Pulse revealed last week that 160,000 patients have already been displaced by their local practice closing. and led to health ministers conceding closures were an ‘issue’.
