A BOLTON GP practice is set to close because of a “national crisis” in primary care in England.

Bosses of Dr Coleman and Partners GP surgery is planning to shut its operation at Tonge Moor Health Centre in Thicketford Road after more than thirty years.

The surgery has lost six GPs in the past two years and said it is finding it “extremely difficult” to recruit graduates.

The team also runs a surgery two miles away at the Harwood Medical Centre and is proposing to bring all patients into that building.

Letters have been sent to all patients at the Tonge Moor site stating that they will be automatically moved over to the Harwood site — unless they choose to go somewhere else.

Partner Dr Stuart Shaw said: “It is with enormous regret that we are contemplating closing our Tonge Moor branch.

“The decision has been predicated by the crisis in primary care in the country at the moment, which has become extremely unpopular with medical graduates and recruitment and retention is a huge problem.”

Dr Shaw said he feels by consolidating the practice the doctors will be able to offer a much better service for patients with more appointments available.

He added: “We want to improve the standard of care by relocating onto one site in Harwood, where we will have more control over our work patterns.

“We feel we can offer a better service with better continuity for patients and more appointments throughout the day — we think this will result in an overall better standard of care.”

The Harwood surgery has the capacity to take on all the patients from the Tonge Moor site and Dr Shaw said: “We hope that they will follow us to Harwood but I appreciate that some may choose to use a practice closer to them.”

The move is currently under consultation but it is believed that the closure could be completed in about three months.

Dr Shaw added that this is “not a position any of the partners want to be in” but predicted others facing similar recruitment difficulties could follow suit.

He added: “We have been contemplating this for several years but the crisis in primary care has led us to make the decision.

“We are not the only practice in the town to be affected by this and I would expect to see more of this happening in Bolton unfortunately.”

Bolton’s Clinical Commissioning Group said it is helping to guide the partners through the consultation process.

Tonge Moor Health Centre itself will not be closing and other services operating from the building will continue.