ANOTHER GP has announced his departure from a troubled Christchurch surgery dogged by recruitment problems.

Dr John Collier is the latest to leave the Barn Surgery in Purewell.

Just Dr Morag Livingstone is now listed as a resident GP at the surgery, which has nearly 7,000 patients.

In recent years the surgery has had as many as five GPs working at the premises.

A call to the surgery yesterday revealed that no non-emergency appointments are available until January 6.

The surgery merged with the neighbouring Orchard Surgery and the Burton and Bransgore Medical Centres to form the Christchurch Medical Practice (CMP) earlier this year after struggling to recruit its own GPs.

Between them they have around 23,000 patients.

Dr Jo White, Senior Partner at CMP said: “Barn, Orchard and Burton and Bransgore practices have recently merged, forming Christchurch Medical Practice.

“This positive move has strengthened our ability to continue to provide high quality services to our patients as we have a greater number of GPs and other clinical staff available.

“We are very sorry to see Dr John Collier leave the practice, he will be missed by staff and patients. We hope to recruit to this vacant position soon and, in the meantime, wish to reassure Dr Collier’s patients that they can access services as usual.

“CMP Partners would like to assure its patients that following the merger it has become much more resilient and more able to cope with these eventualities.

“All CMP Partners want to thank their patients for their support over the last few years and the months since the merger, and to be reassured that work is underway to strengthen the practice following Dr Collier’s departure and going forward.”

Every day an estimated 10,000 people contact their family doctor in Dorset but hundreds are being forced to wait weeks to get an appointment due to a GP recruitment crisis.

A Daily Echo investigation revealed that some surgeries have been forced to have temporary closures, others have merged and the Barn Surgery was temporarily placed in special measures due to staff shortages.

The British Medical Association (BMA) told the us more than 300 GP practices in England, including 30 in southern England revealed in a recent survey they were facing closure in the near future.