Recruitment issues and rising costs force Worcester practice closure

A GP practice in Worcester has announced it is closing due to ongoing recruitment challenges and rising operational costs.

Farrier House Surgery has written to patients advising them to register with another GP as the practice will cease to operate from Friday 1 March 2024.

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Farrier House said it had ‘worked closely with NHS partners over many months’ to find someone to take over the running of the practice but had been unsuccessful.

The surgery reassured patients that Worcester City Primary Care Network and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire were working to ensure they would be ‘safely dispersed’ at the nine alternative practices across the city.

Tom Collins, the Labour candidate for the Worcester constituency, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been contacted by patients who were ‘shocked, alarmed and frustrated’ by news of the closure.

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‘Access to a GP is already patchy in Worcester and many people struggle to get an appointment when they need one,’ he said.

‘This closure will make that problem worse across the city. It’s hard to see how other surgeries are going to accommodate additional patients,’ Mr Collins added.

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According to our sister publication Pulse, the practice had 5,000 patients who will be displaced.

SW Healthcare, which runs the contract for the practice, told Pulse it had struggled to make the practice ‘financially viable’, while recruiting and retaining salaried GPs had been a ‘real challenge’.