GPs close door on new patients

Thousands of GPs are closing their lists to new patients because of a shortage of doctors and high workloads, the British Medical Association claims.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, joint deputy chairman of the BMA's General Practitioners' Committee, says the problem stems from difficulties in recruiting and retaining GPs and because of workload pressures.

"It is quite a serious problem and it is something we have been warning the Government and previous governments about for some time," he adds.

"The most common reason is when one doctor retires and then a practice cannot recruit another one.

"They are left with a higher list of patients to look after and find the only thing they can do is to take no new patients."

Dr Meldrum said his own three-doctor practice in East Yorkshire was forced temporarily to close its lists when it was down by two full-time GPs and there was a delay in recruiting replacements.

He said it was difficult to tell the true scale of the problem across the country, but it was "certainly into the high hundreds of practices which is thousands of doctors whose lists are closed".

Although doctors can say their lists are closed, Primary Care Trusts, which have a duty to provide people with a GP, can force practices to take on new patients.

Dr Meldrum said this system of allocation needed to be looked at again.

"We feel it is not right that PCTs can discharge their responsibility by forcing already overloaded practices to take on more patients," he added.