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Glantwymyn surgery to close amid GP shortages

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Glantwymyn Health Centre serves 7,000 people

A shortage of GPs and recruitment issues has been blamed for the planned closure of a rural practice.

Glantwymyn Health Centre, Powys, will shut in July with services centralised seven miles away in Machynlleth, according to the health board.

It comes as BBC research shows the NHS is seeing the first sustained fall in GP numbers in the UK for 50 years.

Powys health board officials and patient representatives described it as a "difficult decision".

The number of GPs per 100,000 people has fallen from nearly 65 in 2014 to 60 last year across the UK, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust think-tank published on Wednesday,

And the boss of Powys Teaching Health Board said the region faced the same problems.

Patient watchdog Frances Hunt and health board chief executive Carol Shilabeer
Patient watchdog Frances Hunt and health board chief executive Carol Shilabeer said the decision had been "difficult"

"We do have this underlying issue of difficulty to recruit," said chief executive Carol Shilabeer.

"The last thing a health board wants to do is close services, particularly in a rural area.

"It is with reluctance that we have decided to bring two practices together under one roof."

The practice, Dyfi Valley Health, serves 7,000 people in north-west Powys. They will now have to travel to Machynlleth to see a GP.

In January, it said it had "regrettably" submitted a bid to close the Cemmaes Road surgery after "a number of unforeseeable and unsustainable challenges" had already led to reduced hours and services.

GP numbers by UK region

That prompted the health board to submit an application to centralise the practice's services at the Forge Road surgery in Machynlleth.

And those plans were approved at a meeting in Machynlleth on Wednesday at which health officials agreed to look at improvements affecting transport and prescription deliveries.

Frances Hunt from patient watchdog Powys Community Health Council said it had reluctantly agreed to the plans "based on safety and sustainability".

Charlotte Jones, chairwoman of the BMA's GP Committee Wales, which represents doctors, said: "It reflects the current pressures on practices and the crisis we as a profession are facing.

"It is reflected in other parts of the UK but we do feel it quite acutely in many of the rural parts of Wales."