A GP surgery due to close today could be converted into flats.

Holton Homes has applied to demolish the existing Boscombe Manor Medical Centre building at 40 Florence Road, Bournemouth, in order to build a three storey block of nine two-bedroom flats.

Dr Richard Hattersley, who has been running the practice single-handedly, announced his retirement earlier this year, and patients have been advised to register with other surgeries.

The new scheme would see the current Victorian villa knocked down, for which a precedent has already been established.

The site has previously seen planning permission granted in 2006 and 2008 for schemes to demolish the house and build three storey blocks of 12 flats.

Otherwise, Holton Homes' proposal includes 10 cycle spaces but only eight parking spaces, though it claims this is in keeping with council requirements for unallocated spaces.

The firm's application states: "The proposed accommodation has been informed by the need for two bedroom residential units in a highly sustainable location such as Boscombe/Pokesdown area.

"The proposed development will result in the loss of the existing doctor’s surgery.

"The surgery is currently run by a sole practitioner Dr Hattersley however the practice will cease shortly after his retirement.

"Despite the closure of the existing surgery, there remains alternative provision of eight surgeries within a 1.2 mile radius of the application site."

Boscombe Manor is the latest of several GPs surgeries in Bournemouth and Poole to close or be earmarked for closure in recent months.

The sector is under considerable financial pressure.

The surgery was rated 'requires improvement' in its last Care Quality Commission inspection in April this year, although its governance was rated 'inadequate' under the stringent inspection regime introduced at the end of 2014.

However it has faced unusual pressures, with more than four times the national average of patients aged between 25 and 45, more than twice the national average patient turnover, and a high proportion of patients with serious mental illness or substance abuse (13 per cent).

Also, some 16 per cent of the centre's patients do not speak English as a first language.