Northern Ireland

Priory & Springhill: Bid to recruit GPs to under-pressure north Down surgery has begun

The Priory Surgery in Holywood. Picture by Hugh Russell
The Priory Surgery in Holywood. Picture by Hugh Russell The Priory Surgery in Holywood. Picture by Hugh Russell

THE recruitment of GPs to an under-pressure north Down practice has already begun, the Department of Health has said.

GP partners at Priory Surgery in Holywood, which incorporates Springhill Surgery in Bangor, Co Down, announced earlier this month they will hand back their contract to health bosses early next year.

The announcement prompted a large number of patients at Priory to attempt to register at another GP practice in the area.

The Department of Health has now introduced a temporary freeze on the movement of GP patients in practices in north Down, Ards and east Belfast.

The freeze means that a patient registered with a GP practice cannot move to another one in the same catchment area until next month.

Patients who are new to the area should still be able to register with a surgery.

A spokesman for the department said: "We have agreed this temporary measure to stabilise the situation as large numbers of patients registered with Priory surgery sought to register with another practice.

"We have advised patients that both Priory and Springhill surgeries are open and they should remain registered and contact their surgery as normal.

"We have started the process of recruiting GPs to take over the practice and will continue to keep patients notified of the outcome of this process."

The Irish News revealed yesterday that eight practices in Belfast have applied to close their lists to new patients in the last 12 months as surgeries struggle to cope.

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll called for "urgent intervention" to ensure the future of primary NHS care.

"This is a crisis situation that could see patients denied basic healthcare," he said.

"The defunding of our NHS, through years of austerity, has been disastrous. We already had a situation where registered patients are struggling to get an appointment to see their GP.

"It is extremely worrying that many more patients could soon be without a GP."