A Worcester GP practice has announced its imminent closure and list dispersal due to ‘challenges with recruitment and rising costs’.
Farrier House Surgery, which is run on an APMS contract by SW Healthcare, will close on 1 March and the remaining nine surgeries in the city will take on ‘a share’ of its 5,000 patients.
SW Healthcare has struggled to make the practice ‘financially viable’, while recruiting and retaining salaried GPs has been a ‘real challenge’, the chief executive told Pulse.
The company, along with the PCN and ICB, told patients on Monday last week that they had been ‘unsuccessful’ in searching for a new provider to run the practice.
Farrier House will send a text to all patients recommending a specific local practice in order to ‘help GP practices in Worcester City to manage their available capacity’.
SW Healthcare chief executive Claire Goodall told Pulse: ‘It’s obviously incredibly disappointing when any practice has to close, and the team at Farrier have worked really hard to stay open under challenging circumstances over the past few years, so we want to give them enormous credit for that.
‘This is a practice with a small patient list that, due to its location, has been very difficult to make financially viable—and in addition, the GP talent market remains depressed nationally, so finding and retaining salaried GPs for this practice has been a real challenge throughout the duration of our contract.’
She also highlighted that the remaining staff at Farrier House would be ‘welcomed into new opportunities’ across the company’s general practice network.
In response to the closure, GP spokesperson for the Doctors’ Association UK Dr Steve Taylor said GPs are ‘not striking – they’re just leaving’, in a post on X.
‘They won’t do that lightly or quickly. Just slowly one at a time – then a few – then whole teams. It’s already happening – 2,200 fewer than 2015. Practices handing back contracts and closing,’ he added.
Pulse revealed last month that a total of 57 practices closed their doors in 2022, affecting at least 143,000 patients.
Several practices have closed due to recruitment issues over the last year – a Manchester surgery closed in September after the ICB was unable to recruit new doctors, and a Somerset practice closed in February due to ‘staffing shortages’.
However, in other areas there are reports of GPs struggling to find work.
In November, a Pulse survey revealed that there has been a 44% reduction in the number of GP vacancies advertised since the same month in 2022.
And a practice in Surrey recently invited its 11 salaried GPs to take voluntary redundancy in a shift towards ‘new ways of working’, including virtual appointments and ARRS staff.
BMA GP Committee England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer told Pulse that general practice has suddenly gone from a recruitment to an employment crisis, driven by the Government’s squeeze of practice finances.
