A senior doctor says there aren't enough GPs to meet demand in Northern Ireland - describing them as an endangered species.
The Friary GP Surgery has 9,000 patients on its books who live within a six mile radius and is one of three GP surgeries on the same site.Patients can call to arrange an appointment on weekdays between 08:30 and 09:00 GMT.
Despite the decrease in practices, the number of GPs, excluding locums, went up by 20% to 1,419 since 2014.The chairman of the British Medical Association's Northern Ireland GP committee Dr Alan Stout said GPs' workload had increased dramatically over recent years. "The problem that we have at the moment is no matter what way you do it, whether its an appointment system, whether its phone-first, we just don't have the capacity to meet the demand - the demand is just phenomenal."
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