IT is a disgrace that hundreds of Enfield residents have been forced to change their family doctor.

In a borough with surgeries already full to bursting, the 500 people who have been told to find a new GP face an almost impossible task.

The latest figures show that 33 per cent of GPs are nearing retirement age and the rate of new recruits coming into the profession is nowhere near high enough to fill all the potential vacancies.

This means that in the future, more and more patients will be told that they have to find new doctors.

Whilst surgeries insist that they need more staff and more money, the people that will really be hit by these shortages are the young and old.

Young children need medical stability, especially during their immunisations, whilst pensioners may have been with the same doctor for the majority of their lives and to force them to travel to a new doctor who knows nothing of their ailments or medical background is unfair and unjust.

July 12, 2002 10:01