Alston GP surgery unable to recruit a doctor gets back up

A GP surgery in a remote part of Cumbria has welcomed a back-up plan of extra clinical support.

A partnership has now been formed with Cumbria Health on Call (CHOC), which will take over the practice management and provide staff cover.

Alston Medical Practice, which previously had three GPs, has spent a year unsuccessfully trying to recruit a GP partner.

Its only doctor, Claire Corlett, said it was "amazing news" for the area.

She said: "From a patient's perspective I don't anticipate there's going to be any obvious big changes, there'll still be the same practice team, I'll still be there along with our practice manager, nurses and admin staff, so patients will still see the same faces.

"But it now means we've got a lot more support and we can draw on the huge resource of clinical staff CHOC has to get doctors to come and work at the surgery, so it makes us much more sustainable."

Dr Corlett had been working with a locum one day a week while trying to find another full-time GP to help manage 2,300 patients.

She had been shouldering management of the practice along with her clinical role, and said she was "surprised" no one had applied for the GP job.

"From a personal point of view I love working here and it's an absolutely brilliant job, but we are by no means alone when it comes to recruitment issues, there's a national GP recruitment crisis, it's not just Alston or Cumbria, GPs across the country are struggling to recruit," she said.

CHOC already provides out-of-hours primary care across Cumbria and holds the contract for the Glenridding Health Centre, a rural GP practice situated in the Lake District.

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