THE NHS must do more to help under pressure GP surgeries in Witham after a second practice closed its patient list, it is claimed.

Douglas Grove Surgery, in Douglas Grove, Witham, has stopped taking on new patients because of a recruitment crisis.

It follows the decision by the town’s biggest practice, Fern House, in Newland Street, to close its books for a year last April.

Phil Barlow, chairman of Witham Town Council’s working group on health facilities, said: “The reason for them closing the list is that although the surgery has enough capacity they don’t have sufficient GPs.

“Were they able to recruit another GP they could open their list again.

“The problem with Fern House is they have the GPs but nowhere to expand to.”

Braintree and Witham Times:

Earlier this year, Douglas Grove used its extra space to take over the running of blood tests from Fern House.

However, the minor surgery room at the more modern facility is rarely used because GPs are overwhelmed with other appointments.

The two surgeries are the town’s largest, with nearly 23,000 patients between them.

Mr Barlow said: “We have been concerned for ages that our residents are not getting as good a deal in terms of access to GPs and in terms of numbers of patients allocated to each GP.

“It’s enormously frustrating. NHS England do, to a certain extent, acknowledge it but don’t appear to do anything about it.

“It reinforces the view that Witham residents are still worse off than those who live in Maldon, Braintree and Halstead- all of those other areas in Mid Essex.”

Braintree and Witham Times:

The Times contacted the Douglas Grove surgery but nobody was available to speak.

A statement on its website said: “We have not taken this decision lightly, but due to our current staff shortages, clinical staff are working to maximum capacity and we believe it is not in the Practice’s best interest to continue to register patients.

“The practice and NHS England have made this decision to ensure that we continue providing high quality of care for our patients. We are sorry for any inconvenience this will cause.

“We will update the website when our list is reopened to new registrations. There is no need to contact reception.”

The surgery will still accept newborn babies, immediate family members of patients already registered at the practice and students returning from university or college.