Patients have been warned that small GP practices across North Yorkshire face an uncertain future as efforts are made to maintain services in the Dales ahead of a medical centre closing.
Senior councillors have spoken on the issue ahead of a meeting to discuss the future of primary care provision in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale when Reeth Medical Centre closes at the end of May.
North Yorkshire Council’s scrutiny of health committee will meet next week to discuss the issue and the impact on patients in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.
Ahead of the meeting, chair of the committee, Councillor Andrew Lee, admitted that other small, rural GP practices could be at risk in the future.
He said: “With smaller practices, certainly the rural ones, they’re under pressure depending on how many patients they’ve got on the books.
“I think it comes down to finance at the end of the day. If we take Reeth, there’s an issue of the contract and the value that is in the contract and the exposure that a GP is under in terms of having to make it work, and there’s risk attached as well. If it doesn’t work out, quite often they’re exposed financially.
“The other consideration is that for a GP they tend to like to work with colleagues in terms of developing their skills, enhancing the service that they give to patients, and so if you’re just one GP in a rural practice, you don’t get that support from your peers.”
Cllr Lee said the wider issue of primary care sustainability would be considered by the committee in the future.
“I think it’s something we’ll probably be looking at now this Reeth business has come up.
“I would like to understand a little bit more about the contracts and the funding to see why GPs are not necessarily jumping at these opportunities to run medical centres.”
The future of GP services in Reeth was also discussed by members of the care and independence overview and scrutiny committee last week.
Chair of the committee, Barbara Brodigan, said she believed there were a number of small surgeries across the county which could be at risk in the future.
“The funding is the issue. The funding with regards to patient numbers doesn’t take account of providing a service in rural areas.
“I think that anything less than 5,000 patients and the practice could be nonviable. The primary care networks can cover some of the costs and surgeries joining together can help, but people’s expectations of having a local doctor on call seven days a week, those days are gone.”
It was announced this week that a deal had been agreed between the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the Hawes and Aysgarth-based Central Dales Practice to provide a two-day-a-week surgery in Reeth when the centre.
The agreement is subject to suitable premises being found.
The meeting will be held at the Church of St Andrew in Grinton, near Reeth, from 11am on Friday, May 8.
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