Doctors, dentists and pharmacists will be forced to close their doors and leave their patients without care if they are not exempt from the National Insurance increase, health officials have warned.

GPs have asked the Health Secretary for “urgent assurances” that they will not have to pay the higher rate of employer contributions announced in the Budget.

They say medical practices are already struggling to fund the clinical and administrative staff they need.

And they fear that rising taxes will be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”, with patients having to “bear the brunt” of layoffs and closures.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the raid on Wednesday, and organizations representing care homes and hospices have also expressed concerns about the sector’s ability to close the funding gap.

Doctors, dentists and pharmacists will be forced to close their doors and leave patients without care (archive photo)

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the raid on Wednesday, with organizations representing care homes and hospices also expressing concerns.

Dr David Wrigley, a GP and vice-president of the British Medical Association, said the impact of the increase would be “monumental”.

And Dr Richard West, whose Suffolk practice serves 16,000 patients, said: “Our accountants have calculated that the practice would incur additional costs of £140,000 from April. This includes costs associated with increasing employer NICs and the Living Wage. This is equivalent to several senior clinical staff.

The Association of Independent Pharmacies said “dramatic increases” to National Insurance and the minimum wage would be a “wrecking ball” that risks putting many people out of business.

It estimates that the overall cost to the independent community pharmacy sector would be more than £125 million, the equivalent of £12,002 a year for an average pharmacy.

Meanwhile, Care England, which represents adult social care providers, said the NI and pay rises would leave the sector with “an additional funding hole of around £2.4 billion to fill”.

Under the changes announced by Ms Reeves, employer contributions will rise by 1.2 percentage points to 15 per cent from April, and businesses will have to start paying for staff earning more than £5,000 a year , compared to £9,100 currently.

The government had said the public sector would be exempt, but Treasury Minister Darren Jones told BBC Question Time that GP practices were “not part of the public sector” and would be subject to additional taxes.

The Royal College of GPs has contacted Health Secretary Wes Streeting for reassurance that practices will be protected like “the rest of the NHS and public sector”. Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the RCGP, said: “We are seriously concerned about the impact of the increase in NI employer contributions on GP practices, many of which are already struggling to keep their doors open, in due to historical chronic underfunding.

Wes Streeting pledged before the election to shift billions of pounds of funding from hospitals to GPs, saying it would “fix the front door to the NHS”.

A Number 10 spokesperson said yesterday that contract workers, including GPs, were not eligible for an exemption from the NIC rise (stock photo)

“For some, this added financial burden will be the final straw, forcing them to make difficult decisions about redundancy or even closing their practice. Ultimately, it is our patients who will pay the price.

Mr Streeting pledged before the election to shift billions of pounds of funding from hospitals to GPs, saying it would “fix the front door to the NHS”.

A Number 10 spokesperson said yesterday that contract workers, including GPs, were not eligible for an exemption from the NIC rise, which she said was in line with the governments’ approach previous ones. But she suggested GP practices could benefit from additional support later in the year.

Paul Rees, of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “It would be an insult if the Government were able to offer support to GPs as part of the National Insurance increase, but not to working pharmacies tough, which have faced nearly a decade of funding cuts and are closing at record rates.

The British Dental Association has also written to the Chancellor. It said: “Make no mistake, these cost increases will impact access to NHS dentistry. »

The Chancellor visited Accord Healthcare in Newcastle yesterday, where she welcomed a £50 million deal to build an advanced manufacturing plant to supply medicines to the NHS.