A GP practice due to close early next year will not be replaced, health bosses have confirmed.

More than 5,600 patients registered with Eaton Place Surgery in Brighton will now have to find another practice in the city.

Concerns about the impact of the closure will be discussed at a meeting next month.

NHS England had been investigating whether a new surgery could be opened in the area but no suitable alternative place has been found.

The existing building is owned by the Eaton Place practice’s two GPs, who are due to retire at the end of February.

NHS England does not own any GP surgery buildings as its job is to provide funding for services. It is therefore not in a position to buy the site.

It says it has also had no expressions of interest from doctors interested in setting up a practice in the area.

Labour group leader at Brighton and Hove City Council, Warren Morgan, will raise the issue at the health and wellbeing board on December 9.

He said: “A British Medical Association survey this year showed six in ten GPs are considering early retirement, and this closure in my ward highlights the consequences when that happens.

“Patients are now scrambling for places at other surgeries, often some distance from where they live, while others wait for the health authorities to find a place for them.

“This closure will put other GP surgeries under huge pressure at a time when we ask them to do more in terms of cancer screening, smoking cessation and other public health priorities.

“The closure of the surgery, which is within sight of Royal Sussex County Hospital, could add pressure on an already stretched A&E.

“Further retirements or closures would put the system under intolerable strain in the east of the city.”

A spokesman for NHS England said their priority was to ensure that patients from Eaton Place have access to GP services.

He said the only way to guarantee patients continued access was to ask them to re-register with one of the 15 other surgeries located nearest to Eaton Place surgery that welcome new patients.

There are 46 practices in the city and there are no plans for any others to close.