A TOWN'S family doctors are struggling to cope with extra work after nearly 600 refugees were sent there without the local health authority or council being told, it has been revealed.
Practices in Gateshead are having to organise care for the new patients, despite being granted no extra funding, according to Doctor magazine
The report comes a week after the publication reported that a prominent Leicester GP was threatening to close her list in protest at not being told 430 asylum seekers were being moved into her area.
Gateshead's six-doctor Oxford Terrace practice has taken more than 200 asylum seekers, despite having a list of 9,700.
Group practice manager Alan Griffin said: "They just started arriving on the doorsteps. One of the problems was that there was no additional funding. With respect to asylum seekers, they do take a lot more time to deal with."
A Home Office spokesman said it had placed only 162 asylum-seekers in Gateshead
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