03/07/2014 BBC Points West

A GP surgery in Bristol could close, because the doctors who run it say

The two doctors who run St Martin's Surgery in Knowle say they no longer

feel able to make sure their patients are properly cared for.

Dr Holly Hardy feels she can't carry on.

She's one of only two part`time partners at this practice in Knowle.

Between them, they have 6,000 patients.

With this number on the practice's books, there

But they've been unable to recruit new partners and have both handed

I think it was a very necessary decision to make in view of the fact

that we could not recruit new doctors. We have had some really

good people who are helping us out, but it reached the point where we

had to make the difficult decision about whether we could maintain

clinical standards and ensure patient safety in the long`term.

The NHS says it will try to keep the surgery open.

But that doesn't reassure the MP for the area, who is calling

Inevitably, there is a danger that patients won't be up to get the

access that they need. So I have asked NHS England to call an

emergency meeting of all the GP practices in the area said that we

can sit down and work out how we can make sure that my constituents will

get access to their GPs. Local people are concerned.

A lot of people use that surgery. I think it is terrible.

There will be people out of a job. And the health service is stretched

enough as it is, so there will be no doctors to go to.

This is by no means the only surgery in the West to find GPs

Only last month, Points West interviewed this family

doctor who resigned from his practice in protest at what he

called unrealistic work pressures caused by Government targets.

I feel really upset about it, because I read want quality time

with my patients. I do not want to give them more drugs in order to hit

targets. A recent survey

of 1400 family doctors in the West showed that four out

of ten practices found it difficult It is now a waiting game for the

patients to find out who their new doctor will be.

GPs across the country have complained about increased workload.

But I asked Dr Helen Stokes Lampard from the Royal College of GPs

if quitting the profession was letting patients down.

No GP would ever by choice walk away from a job they love and value

This is a sign of a desperately stressed out, exhausted profession

A lot of people would argue that yes, it is a very hard job,

Some get paid over ?100,000, so what is the problem?

Money is not a cause of all things, it is only part of it.

It does not matter how much you pay people, if they cannot get through

Most GPs are responsible, caring professional, and if they

felt that they cannot deliver a caring, good quality service then

they would rather get out of it rather than doing a bad job.

So what do you expect patients to do if their surgery closes?

I have no doubt that there are plans being put into place to look

But there is only so far that you can stretch putting

This is probably a big wake`up call to

But the government did protect the NHS budget.

Protecting the budget is one thing but we have

an increasingly ageing population and people with lots of diseases.

Also, the budget for primary care has been systematically reducing

We have the lowest proportion of the NHS share that we have ever had.

Our colleagues in secondary care do an amazing job, but

in primary care if we get it right, we can stop patients from getting

sick in the first place, they do not need to go to secondary care.

So we're calling on the government to get that funding back to where

Given that we are seeing so many people, 90% of the patients

in the country , we think that 11% of the budget is not an unfair ask.

A man's appeared in court charged with murdering a barman in Swindon.

Tom Rogers was killed while cycling home from work last Thursday night.

Jason Voon is accused of murdering him, as well as the

Meanwhile, police in Swindon are tonight

continuing to investigate Mr Rogers' death, and are in the town centre

Plans were unveiled today to try to prevent the Somerset village

of Muchelney being cut off by floodwater again.

For two months over the winter, people living

in the village could only get in or out by boat or tractor.

Today, the county council put forward plans to raise one of the

But the plans have received a mixed reaction.

It is a sticking plaster at the moment,

because I know it is a fair amount of money that is being spent, but it

I've been given huge reassurance on the height to

It is not a standard 60 centimetres, it will be more in some places

But it will be at the maximum level of the flood.

It's hoped building work will start next month, and will be finished

We will have more news on the BBC website. Here is the weather.

Temperatures went up to 25 Celsius in parts of Wiltshire today. It

could be the same tomorrow, but there will be some cloud and breezy

weather. That will bring some rain later in the afternoon and through

the evening. No chance of rain tonight but temperatures will be

mild, around the mid teens. Through tomorrow, you will find sunshine

being squeezed to the east. The cloud will move in from the West.

First there will be some rain and then some heavy rain as we get into

the evening. That will spread eastwards through the evening and on

Saturday morning some of that rain will be heavier. But temperatures

tomorrow will probably still be in the low 20s and in Wiltshire it

could be even higher than that, closer to 2425 degrees. The rain

will be on Saturday, but we do not know

For those of you who haven't already heard, we've recorded our highest

temperature so far this year, and that was in Writtle in Essex. It

looks highly likely as well that we could see temperatures of a similar

value for tomorrow. Anywhere through central London to the east could