General practice in one rural county could be in major crisis by Christmas, local GP leaders have warned.

Several practices in Devon are on the brink of closing or cutting services drastically, the county’s local medical committee has warned. The LMC said it had put general practice on “red alert” for the first time in the county in the last month.

In a statement, released to the Plymouth Herald, it said: “Despite grappling with the challenges faced, general practice remains open and has been throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to its clinicians and staff. But fears are growing that later in the year many local GP surgeries won’t have the resources or resilience to deal with the existing challenges, plus additional pressures like a huge increase in COVID-19 numbers, a significant rise in respiratory virus cases and a predicted hike in flu cases of at least 50%.”

LMC chair Dr Rachel Ali said: “Unless urgent action is taken, many local GP surgeries will be on the brink of collapse in the coming months. Using modelling from our alert status system, we predict a significant rise in Red and Black assessments over winter. By Christmas, we envisage 35% of local GP practices will be reporting Red or Black – that’s around 43 practices in crisis across the county every week. Some GP practices will face a very real prospect of having to run reduced services, close temporarily or even permanently.

“The LMC is calling for urgent support from our local health system partners to help manage demand, stabilise the workforce and release capacity for the emerging work associated with COVID-19 and flu and to find ways to plan ahead for crisis points.”