500 GP surgeries 'could close due to ageing staff'

Hundreds of GP surgeries could close next year because family doctors are retiring more quickly than they can be recruited, doctors' leaders have warned.

According to the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), 543 practices out of the 8,000 across England are at risk of closure. In these surgeries, more than 90 per cent of doctors are aged 60 or over and many expressed an intention to retire in the next 12 months. The average retirement age for family doctors in the UK is 59.

"Unless drastic action is taken to make sure that there are enough doctors to take their place, thousands of patients could be forced to travel miles to their nearest GP practice or be left stranded with no family doctor at all," the college says.

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The issue will be discussed at the RCGP's annual conference, which begins in Liverpool today. Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the college, will say that the number of young doctors entering the profession is failing to compensate for the numbers leaving the profession to work overseas, retire early or take up other jobs, The Guardian reports.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: "We do have a workforce crisis in general practice. We've been losing GPs, we are losing GPs and we're not recruiting enough doctors into the profession."

The warning comes just two days after David Cameron announced plans to open seven-day GP services by 2020. But, the BBC says, the overall theme of the RCGP conference will be the problems GPs are have just maintaining the current level of services.

The Department of Health said it was taking steps address the problem.

"We know GPs are under pressure, which is why we're increasing trainees so that GP numbers continue to grow faster than the population and will train 10,000 more primary and community health and care staff by 2020, including 5,000 more GPs," a spokesman for the department said. "There are already 1,000 more GPs than in 2010 and we're making it easier for GPs to return to the profession."