A POOLE GP has hit out over NHS practises which he claims are causing the crisis which has seen the closure and merger of surgeries in Dorset, as well as affecting the number of surgeons available to cut waiting lists.

Dr Iain Fullerton works as a locum or freelance GP but used to be a partner at the now-closed Herbert Avenue Surgery in Parkstone.

"I think I feel a bit bashed by the system," he said. "I was 23 years a partner in Herbert Avenue which was a very small practice with two partners and a list of about 3,700 patients and the lease was running out on our building.

"We had staff due to retire and we were clobbered by the Care Quality Commission, partly because it was a really old building we couldn't maintain to modern standards because we weren't responsible for it."

The practice eventually merged with the Heatherview Surgery and Dr Fullerton, who is 54, decided to become a locum, partly to avoid the responsibility, 'hassle' and costs of being a practice partner.

"You need GPs to want to become partners because they invest more but what's happened is that the government restricted the lifetime pension savings allowance from £1.5 million to £1.2 million," he explained. "This means that many older GPs have used their pension allowance so they've got no incentive to stay on as they've earned the maximum pension they are allowed.

"The other thing is that the annual allowance has been restricted which means if doctors work a longer working week and earn more money they earn over the allowance so they are clobbered on that so they cut their working week."

He said the issue was the same one which saw threats of restrictions on operations at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

"Another issue that's affecting GPs everywhere is that there used to be 14 per cent of the total NHS budget spent on primary care and that went down a few years ago to eight percent. It's rising again now but it isn't rocket science, if you put less money into something things become more difficult."

He said money was not being saved overall as: "People are going to hospital instead and that costs more than treating people in the community.

"Some people say doctors are lazy because we don't stay open all day but it's just a reaction to the fact that things are overstretched because the resources aren't there," he said.