TWO leading South Lakeland medical practices face an uncertain future over crippling charges being imposed on their premises.

A government decision to more than double service charges on NHS properties means the future of GP surgeries in Ulverston and Ambleside hangs in the balance.

Staff at the Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside were told the surgery faces a £25,000 increase in services charges from £21,000 to £46,000 per year. It is claimed by staff that they were not consulted on the increase before it was introduced and they are now appealing the decision by taking it to the NHS at a national level.

"There is no basis for doing this," said practice manager Kaye Ward. "They (the government) are trying to more-than-double the service charge. We have asked them to justify the rise and we are at an impasse with them basically.

"We have told them we can't afford the rise.

"It (the decision) has been taken to the NHS on a national level. Hopefully we won't have to pay it but if the service charge does get put up by that much then I don't know how we will manage to keep on going to be honest."

Rural medical practices, such as the one in Ambleside, have already been hit by the gradual removal of the minimum practice income guarantee (MPIG) which is being phased out over a seven year period.

This is the fifth year of that process and the estimated amount of annual income lost to the Central Lakes Medical Group is estimated to be around £30,000.

"MPIG is being cut, and we still have a lot of that to be phased out," said Dr Ward. "As this happens, our income goes down, and recruitment becomes an issue. The extra service charge will only worsen that.

"We can't afford to pay people the average amount, and this is an expensive place to live. So medical professionals don't want to come here to work.

"We will be stuck with fewer staff. We have already lost one advanced nurse practitioner."

Tim Jackson, practice manager at Ulverston, added: "We have had a huge increase in service charges, which cannot be justified by NHS Property Services. We can't find any information explaining why, but the charges have increased massively.

"It has got to the extent where if we had that level of service charge we would have to suffer a reduction in staffing.

"The increase is crazy. It is the equivalent of what it takes to pay two doctors.

"Another problem we have is that our rent has increased, and they won't even tell us how much it is. Every time we try and find out they give us a different number. There is no funding to help with these costs.

"We are at a stalemate with NHS Property Services."

NHS Property Services Ltd (NHSPS) took ownership of many NHS community buildings in 2015 and Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron claims that since then there has been a "huge" increase in service charges.

Mr Farron has now written to the Department of Health asking what it is doing to 'address this serious drain on front line funding which inevitably leads to poorer services for local people.'

"This is nothing short of daylight robbery," he said. "The practices do not get anything extra for this increase in service charge. It is simply to fill the coffers of the limited company that controls the properties now."

NHS Property Services stressed that the costs have always been there. They were previously covered by the taxpayer through subsidies, rather than by the GP practice.

A spokesperson for NHSPS said: "There has been no significant change in the property costs at the health centres nor to the total amount being invoiced by NHS Property Services.

"We appreciate that due to revised local subsidy arrangements, the proportion of the charge being met directly by the occupier has changed and are working with the practices and local commissioners to see how we can help them.

"NHSPS is wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health. All monies that NHSPS generates are reinvested in the NHS."