HEALTH bosses cannot guarantee whether all five GP practices due to close later this year will remain open on the same sites with different doctors in charge.

The Practice Group is terminating its contract to run the surgeries in Brighton this summer because of a potential reduction in funding and staffing problems.

NHS England regional head of primary care, Stephen Ingram, told members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s health and wellbeing committee everything possible was being done to ensure patients were able to register with a GP.

He said: “We absolutely need to guarantee they continue to have access to GP services.

“However that does not mean that we can guarantee that each and every one of those sites will remain open after this contract comes to an end.”

Mr Ingram said the NHS England was working with the city’s clinical commissioning group and council to come up with a solution.

This included speaking with other GP practices in the city to see if they would be able to expand to take in more patients.

The practices affected are Whitehawk Medical Centre, Willow House Surgery in Bevendean, Hangleton Manor Surgery, one based in Boots in North Street and the Brighton Homeless Healthcare in Morley Street.

The meeting heard that practices locally and nationally were struggling to find GP prepared to become partners in practices and take on contracts.

Mr Ingram said many of the new generation of GPs preferred to take on salaried or part time roles instead.

He said this, combined with an ever increasing workload, was leading to a rise in the number of GP practices pulling out of contracts.

He said about five years ago there would have been one closure a year across Sussex, Surrey and Kent but now it was averaging about one a month.

Mr Ingram warned there was a “strong risk” that other practices across the region would also take the decision to end their contracts, putting even more pressure on already stretched services.

Committee members were told negotiations were in place to stagger the closure of the surgeries so they did not happen all at once.

Health bosses are meeting next month to examine a list of options to tackle the problem and make recommendation.

In the meantime, patients are advised to do nothing and keep using their surgery as usual.

The closure has sparked concerns about the impact on GP surgeries in the city, particularly following the closures of Eaton Place Surgery in Brighton and Goodwood Court in Hove last year.