A FRAIL and elderly man has attacked “heartless” doctors for refusing to treat him after 23 years as a patient just because he moved house.

The Rev Gunter Helft, aged 86, has been told he will no longer receive care at Elbury Moor Medical Centre in Fairfield Close, Brickfields, Worcester, because he now lives outside “practice boundaries”.

Mike Foster, MP for Worcester, who broke the news about Mr Helft’s plight on Twitter, said he was “incandescent with rage”.

It is up to GP practices to decide whether or not to keep patients on once they have moved, but Elbury Moor says it cannot make an exception and it has advised Mr Helft how to find a new GP. Mr Helft was forced to move from his old address in Kenwood Avenue, Tolladine, into sheltered accommodation in Cripplegate House, St John’s, at the end of October because of his growing health needs.

The steps at the semi-detached house he shared with his wife of 56 years, Diane – now his sole carer – were too steep for him to manage.

The house was on a steep hill and the toilet was upstairs which made life difficult, forcing the couple to apply for the two-bedroom flat in St John’s.

Mr Helft, who has battled throat cancer, has suffered a stroke and walks only short distances with the aid of a stick. He said he had asked GPs to make an exception and let him stay but they refused.

The former vicar of Old St Martin’s Church in the city’s Cornmarket has been a patient at the practice since it was based in Lowesmoor.

“We appreciate there are boundaries but we also think, as a caring profession, there should be the odd exception,” he said. “I am very upset. Because of the medical position I’m in I am dependent on this practice. All the partners know me.

“The receptionists know me. When you get to the stage of being decrepit these things are important,” said Mr Helft, also a former headteacher of a school in Yorkshire.

“If it wasn’t such a good practice we wouldn’t mind. That’s why this heartless decision is so disappointing.

“Because they’re good doctors you expect better from them.”

Mike Foster MP said: “I still cannot believe that GPs have acted in such an insensitive manner.

“To do this to an 86-year-old man with chronic health complaints is, quite frankly, heartless. It has caused him real anxiety.”

Mr Foster said he would now write to Paul Bates, chief executive of NHS Worcestershire, the organisation which regulates county GPs, to complain about Mr Helft’s treatment.

In a statement, Paul Hill, business manager at Elbury Moor Medical Centre, said: “As with all GP practices, we have a specific practice boundary from within which we accept patients.

“Whenever a patient moves outside of the practice boundary we do contact them to explain the reasons for this and to advise how they can seek the services of a GP closer to their new home.

“We have met with Rev Helft on several occasions in order to ensure the process of him moving to his new practice was as smooth as possible.”

Lynda Dando, head of primary care at NHS Worcestershire, said: “When a patient moves outside of their practice boundary, then a practice would need to take into account other considerations, for example the ease of making an urgent home visit and the general health of a patient.

“The Department of Health is currently considering whether or not to remove practice boundaries and a decision on this should be made by April 2010.”