Rishi has urged regional health chiefs to re-think their approach to the future of Reeth Medical Centre.
They have said they cannot find anybody to take on the practice in Swaledale when the long-serving GP Dr Mike Brookes and his wife Marie, the practice manager, retire at the end of May.
Whilst accepting that there were recruitment challenges, Rishi believes that it must be possible to find someone to take over the NHS GP contract in some form and that a solution which maintains access to these services in Reeth should be possible.
He said the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which commissions GP services in North Yorkshire, should re-double its efforts.
The practice serves 1,600 patients in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. The nearest alternative practices are at Hawes and Aysgarth, Leyburn and Richmond.
He said: “The ICB does not seem to appreciate what is at stake for local people. While I appreciate there are challenges to finding someone to take on the practice at Reeth, it is very difficult to believe there isn’t a GP in the UK who would find the role attractive.
“What is clear to me from the last 48 hours is the overwhelming level of community support for finding a solution and I think the ICB should be tapping into that to help find that solution.
“Whatever obstacles there may be to finding a suitable replacement team and details to be agreed around premises, I believe they can be overcome.”
Rishi commended the work of the six parishes in Swaledale, along with North Yorkshire Cllr Yvonne Peacock, in forming a group to work together on the issue. He was in close contact with the group to co-ordinate efforts.
He said the impact of the centre’s closure would be keenly felt by patients, many of the elderly, and on the neighbouring practices who would be allocated the Reeth patients.
He has already written to the ICB expressing his concerns about the closure announcement but has yet to receive a formal response.
