More than 170 GP surgeries have closed in three years with doctors citing the increasing financial pressures of running modern day practices .
The British Medical Association says it’s worried about further closures, as demand on GPs increases; while the Royal College of GPs says such closures can have a negative impact on patients .
An investigation by BBC Radio 5 live Daily found that 171 GP surgeries closed in England in the three years to October 2015. A Freedom of Information request revealed a third of these are due to contracts being terminated or not renewed – and another third due to mergers.
The numbers are echoed by the national data provider, the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which show the overall number of surgeries in England has fallen since 2010.
Full story in The Mirror 23 March 2016