A GP has pointed the finger of blame at the government after it was announced a Weymouth surgery will be forced to close due to a lack of new recruits.

In a shock announcement on Thursday, the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) confirmed Abbotsbury Road Surgery, which has two sites in Westham and Chickerell and serves almost 9,000 patients, will close in March 2019.

Health bosses said the surgery has struggled to recruit new GPs to replace retiring partners, highlighting the alarming effects of a widening crisis across Dorset and the rest of the country.

Dr Jon Orrell, a councillor and GP in Weymouth, said: “Local surgery problems are not down to Abbotsbury Road in isolation. There is a national shortage of doctors and nurses.

“We were promised an extra 5,000 GPs at the general election but instead 1,000 more have been lost. Urgent action is needed to train more professionals at home, and in the meantime, to reassure those from abroad.

“It is a time of instability. Austerity and bad workforce planning are having impacts.”

Twenty-nine members of staff work at the Abbotsbury Road practice, led by two GP partners with support from locum GPS, reception and admin staff, practice nurses and nurse practitioners.

In 2016, the government introduced new contracts for trainee doctors which increased the number of ‘standard’ hours in which they would earn a basic salary rather than extra pay for working unsociable hours.

In a separate move, financial incentives for GPs were also removed, leading to concerns that trainees would lean towards hospital medicine over general practice.

Dr Orrell said: “The imposed new contract disillusioned junior doctors causing emigration and disengagement from intended careers. GP surgeries close through lack of those doctors.

“It’s not a surprise, staffing in the NHS is being neglected by government. There is a lot of work going on to get a new scheme going to establish new medical services in the area of Abbotsbury Road and Chickerell, rather than see a dispersion.”

Just last month, the Royal College of GPs warned 2.5 million patients across England may see their local surgery close in the next five years due to the high numbers of GPs at risk of leaving.