Emergency funding ‘needed to prevent closures of 100 GP practices’

The government has been urged to provide additional funding to help prevent the closure of almost 100 GP practices across England.

According to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the decision to phase out the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG) scheme is set to affect a total of 1,700 practices, placing the care of 12.2 million patients under potentially serious threat.

In the case of the 100 practices most at risk, an emergency stability fund may be needed to safeguard the care of their almost 700,000 patients. Many of these surgeries serve deprived inner city, such as the East London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney, or remote communities.

The RCGP also called for ministers to give a guarantee that no practices will close as a result of the phasing out of MPIG.

RCGP honorary secretary Professor Nigel Mathers said: "The only way to ensure that general practice continues to be sustainable is for the four governments of the UK to ensure that its funding is increased to 11 percent of the NHS budget by 2017."

According to previous research from the organisation, the number of patient consultations in England is estimated to rise to a high of 409 million by 2017/18, up from only 304 million in 2008/09.