Retired psychologist handcuffs himself to GP practice in protest over closure

A retired psychologist handcuffed himself to a pillar outside Winton Health Centre in Bournemouth last week in protest over the forthcoming closure of the practice.

‘I just wanted to take a final last stand to show that not everybody had given up on the surgery,’ Dr Edwin Owen told the Bournemouth Daily Echo.

‘The fight is only over when it has closed down, I hope there is some way this can be turned around.’

The surgery, which has a patient list of approximately 10,000, is set to close on 31 July.

The ICB previously told Pulse that ‘well known ongoing workforce and recruitment pressures’ coupled with ongoing financial pressures meant the partners at the health centre were ‘no longer able to guarantee delivery of safe primary care services for registered patients’.

Dr Paul Johnson, chief medical officer at NHS Dorset, told Pulse that the ICB had explored options for a merger or takeover but without success.

According to the Echo, GPs at the understaffed practice had been doing 375 sessions each per week, double the recommended workload limit.

It comes as many other GP practices are handing back contracts over issues such as recruitment difficulties and workload.

A patients’ group in Shropshire is looking at buying its local GP surgery building, to save it from closure and make it more attractive to new doctors.

And two GP partners were suspended by the GMC for falsifying QOF records in a bid to save their struggling practice.

Meanwhile the BMA has called for urgent action to save general practice in Northern Ireland – 16 GP practices have now handed back their contracts in one year.