Too many GPs are retiring or emigrating and not enough new recruits are willing to work in North Wales, a leading doctor has warned.

As a result of the “recruitment crisis”, surgeries are being forced to get the health board to step in to run their practices, says Dr Eamonn Jessup, who wrote to AMs to express his concerns.

Dr Jessup, the chairman the North Wales Local Medical Committee which represents local GPs, says Wrexham is the worst affected county with coastal towns like Conwy and Colwyn Bay and parts of rural Gwynedd not far behind.

Offering his support to Dr Jessup and North Wales’ medical practitioners, Darren Millar, Assembly Member for Clwyd West, said:

"The letter is a cry for help from those at the frontline of NHS services in North Wales.

“GPs in the region have been warning of a recruitment crisis for years but the Welsh Government has buried its head in the sand and failed to take the steps required to secure the new doctors we need.

“Instead of ignoring these pleas we now need urgent and sustained action from Welsh Labour Ministers to prevent a complete breakdown of the primary care model which has served patients so well for a generation.

"The Local Medical Council has my full support."