Daily Mail - 19.08.2019

MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019 http://www.dailymail.co.uk 70p

EXCLUSIVE Surgeries that take the

afternoon off face £40k funding axe

DOCTORS

ORDERED

TO STOP

HALF-DAY

CLOSING

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Splitting up: Strictly dancers Neil and Katya Jones

By Sophie Borland

Health Editor

THE NHS is launch-

ing a major crackdown

on GP surgeries which

close for half-days

during the week, the

Mail can reveal.

Officials have identified 722

practices in england – a tenth

of the total – which regularly

close their doors for at least

four hours at a time, includ-

ing lengthy lunch breaks or

midweek afternoons off.

They say that if these surgeries

remained open, an additional

287,000 appointments would be

available every year. In an unpre-

cedented move, NHS england

plans to withhold funding from

GP practices that close for half-

days without permission. This

would cost a practice about

£40,000 a year, which could pay

for a nurse or a part-time GP.

The crackdown will be wel-

comed by patients who are find-

ing it increasingly difficult to see

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