A GP has penned an open letter to patients explaining his decision to leave the Lunesdale Surgery after 23 years. 

Dr Peter Weeks, from the Kirkby Lonsdale-based surgery, said he would be leaving his full-time job at the surgery although he will return in another capacity.

Dr Weeks said in a statement: "This is a very tough letter to write. After 23 years, I will be leaving the Lunesdale Surgery. I always felt that full-time was how I wanted to serve as a GP partner. Unfortunately, after a really nasty depression and burnout, even though I will be able to return to general practice, it won’t be in a full-time capacity, so now it is for the young ones to take on.

"Hopefully I am leaving behind an organisation that will continue to provide the best, most personalised medical care, it can. The last few years have been brutal with political decimation, Covid and massively increasing demand with decreasing resources.

"As a child growing up, there was never anything else I wanted to do other than to be a doctor, a rural GP. How lucky was I to have the community of the Lune Valley to be a GP to." 

He thanked district nurses, other NHS staff and his family.