Crisis town practice to take on 16,000 patients after three closures

Bridlington PCN has begun transferring thousands of patients to one of its remaining two practices, after confirming it would be closing three of the town’s five GP surgeries.

Currently, three of the GP practices in the East Riding of Yorkshire town operate on APMS contracts set to expire in March 2023.

But in October, the providers decided not to renew them, with the ICB revealing it did not intend to seek new contractors.

Humber and North Yorkshire ICB has now confirmed that the 16,000 excess patients will be transferred to just one of the town’s remaining practices: Drs Reddy & Nunn, formerly named Practice Three.

The first patient transfer took place last week (10 January), with Drs Reddy & Nunn taking on Practice One’s patient list.

The ICB said that the practices have already been ‘working closely together under the single clinical leadership’ of clinical director Dr Priya Reddy and Dr Nicole Nunn, with ‘minimal change’ for patients.

The PCN has said it will carry out a ‘phased’ approach to the transfer, with patients from the other closing practices – Field House Surgery and Wolds View – to be transferred before the end of March.

Despite the shift, the practice will maintain the same GP-to-patient ratio. Drs Reddy & Nunn is also a training practice, with training currently underway.

GP practices in the coastal Yorkshire town have notoriously struggled to retain and recruit new staff, culminating with most surgeries adopting APMS contracts.

The ICB had told Pulse these contracts were causing ‘uncertainty’ in the system, resulting in the practices ‘struggling to move on with the Network DES’ given the focus on ‘day-to-day survival’.

Dr Reddy, clinical director and partner at Drs Reddy & Nunn, said the transfer of patients ‘will be carried out in a phased way to ensure everyone is handed over in a safe and secure manner’, with affected patients receiving a letter confirming the new arrangements.

She added that the major shift will offer the remaining practice ‘strength and stability’ as part of a larger, single practice group.

The approach will also offer staff greater career progression and more opportunity to specialise, the ICB has said.

In 2018, Bridlington was one of many areas denied Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF), causing plans to develop new premises to be scrapped.

This had come after Bridlington GP shortages forced practices to close their patient lists in 2016.

Pulse’s recent Lost Practices investigation found that at least 474 surgeries across the UK have folded with no replacement, with the impact felt by 1.5 million patients.

Further, our investigation in 2021 revealed that 800 GP practices have closed since 2013.