A DOCTOR has announced his Boscombe practice will shut in just ten weeks.

The Boscombe Manor Medical Centre is going to close at the end of June after Dr Richard Hattersley, who has been running the practice single-handedly, announced his retirement.

It is understood hundreds of patients could be affected by the closure, which has been cemented because no other doctor was able to take the practice on, the Echo understands.

The decision to close the practice was taken by Dr Hattersley, not the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

A NHS Dorset CCG spokesman confirmed: “NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group has received notice from Dr Hattersley informing us of his intention to retire from the practice on 30 June 2017.

“This will unfortunately mean changes for patients registered at Boscombe Manor Medical Centre.

“Over the coming weeks we will be supporting the practice to ensure services are able to continue until the practice closes and will be writing to all registered patients on behalf of the practice to advise them of the next steps.”

Boscombe Manor Medical Centre opened in October 1996 in a large Victorian House in Florence Road. It offers a range of clinics for diseases such as asthma and diabetes, and offers antenatal and postnatal care, minor surgery, check-ups and children’s vaccinations.

As revealed in the Daily Echo, ‘super-surgeries’ with up to 50,000 patients could be introduced in a radical shake-up of GP services.

In a draft report of its Primary Care Commissioning Strategy and Plan, Dorset CCG proposed a new ‘integrated GP model’ which could see the number of GP surgery sites more than halved in the county from 131 to between just 36 and 69.

In central Bournemouth alone 10 sites, used by seven practices, could be reduced to just three.

The closure of GP practices has hit record levels nationwide, forcing more than a quarter of a million patients to changes surgery, data suggests.

According to data collected by Pulse magazine under the Freedom of Information Act, some 265,000 patients had to change their practice in 2016 - a 150 per cent increase on 2014.