12 Hackney Practices including Well Street Surgery face closure after MPIG withdrawal Pic: hackney.gov.uk

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has called upon ministers to provide emergency funding to GPs surgeries in order to prevent their imminent closure.

This demand follows the announcement that the Government is to phase out the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG) over the next seven years.

The MPIG was introduced in 2004 in order to help GP practices in more deprived areas cope with the higher costs they face due to the impact of poverty upon ill-health.

Without this financial buffer up to one hundred practices across the UK, including twelve in Hackney, face imminent closure.

Those affected in Hackney include The Lower Clapton Group, Wall Street Surgery, and the Lawson Practice.

The withdrawal of the MPIG comes at a time when many GP practices are relying on the extra cash simply to stay afloat.

The RCGP claim that without an injection of emergency funding now some 700,000 patients across the UK face losing access to a local, family doctor.

It is reported that The Lower Clapton Group faces losing £35,000 each year up to 2020 as a result of this withdrawal.

NHS England has calculated that the worst affected surgeries stand to lose up to £120 per patient per year over the next seven years.

The RCGP insists that scrapping the MPIG will lead to what they call ‘disastrous consequences’ for patients, their communities and the NHS.

To understand how the decision to withdraw the MPIG also affects surgeries in Tower Hamlets, see here.

And click here for more information on the story as a whole from East London Lines.