A GP practice rapped by government health inspectors because patients struggled to get appointments has scrapped its walk-in clinics – to meet rising demand.

In a frank open letter, Dr Thomas Reichhelm, West Malling Group Practice’s (WMGP) managing partner, described the growing pressures on his organisation and the raft of changes aimed at making it more accessible.

Walk-in clinics were introduced in 2014 to help relieve pressure on the system.

However these came at the expense of pre-booked appointments.

The practice says their decision to end the morning clinics from Monday, September 26, is supported by the vast majority of its patients, and it will allow booking four weeks ahead and make it easier to book online.

Dr Reichhelm warned GPs face a “perfect storm” caused by the national staff training, recruitment and retention crisis, a “very scary” workload increase of between 10% and 20%, and a major shift of many hospital services into the primary care sector.

WMGP has seen its budget slashed by 25% over the last three years and was forced to switch from a contract financially rewarding it for carrying out extra tasks like taking blood and dressings to a standard deal.

The group has surgeries in West Malling, Kings Hill and Leybourne and just over 19,000 patients, comparable to several other large practices across the borough.

Its current Care Quality Commission rating is “requires improvement”.

Dr Reichhelm said the practice is also to review how it deals with letters and tests for patients.

Some prescriptions could also be lengthened and back office staff will be drafted in to answer telephones at busy times to help patients get through.

There have been also been long-standing rumours WMGP was planning to close its practice in West Malling.

Dr Reichhelm confirmed no closures at the aging centres are imminent but working across three sites is currently “unsustainable”. Instead, there are plans to expand in Kings Hill.

He said: “Looking ahead, we are seeing more and more collaboration of practices and even mergers to better be able to provide more with less.

“We are also talking with our neighbours and I have no doubt that before long certain services will start to be provided across a larger patch which is logical.”