HEALTH chiefs hope a new scheme will end the crippling shortage of family doctors in the Gwent Valleys.

In March a special Argus investigation revealed the crisis in the Valleys, where there is no one to replace the many family doctors who want to retire.

In Blaenau Gwent, where there are 37 GPs, six are under the age of 50 but almost a third are aged over 60 - and some have even come out of retirement to continue practicing. Within five years, unless drastic action is taken, there could be only a handful of GPs practicing.

Now a successful scheme to boost the number of family doctors coming to work in the GP recruitment blackspot could expand.

Thousands of patients would benefit from extra clinics covering coronary heart disease, diabetes and other conditions, if the plan gets Assembly backing.

Blaenau Gwent Local Health Board (LHB) aims to persuade the Assembly to spend £100,000 to reduce inequalities in health and to extend the Heads of the Valleys Resource Centre Project into Abertillery and Llanhilleth, where Dr Balarami Reddy Rampa, 65, retires next month.

The project was set up last year at Brynmawr's Blaen-y-Cwm practice, after efforts to recruit a GP to run it full-time failed.

The new LHB and the University of Wales College of Medicine are committed to running the practice, employing salaried GPs, and with strong training and research links.

It has already brought new GPs to the area. Now the scheme could expand into the Lower Ebbw Fach Valley, covering one practice in Abertillery which is without a permanent GP, and one in Llanhilleth where current GP, Dr Balarami Reddy Rampa, (pictured) 65, retires next month.

Dr Rampa, GP at The Surgery in Llanhilleth for 33 years, told the Argus: "I have been stretched to the limit here and I support the new scheme. It gives a break for the doctors and they will be able to cover the nights and weekends.

"It is very difficult to get good doctors here. I'm retiring because I'm under pressure from my family and I need to think of them."

Some Abertillery patients plan a demonstration tomorrow because a locum doctor's contract was not renewed.

More than 600 people have signed a petition demanding that Dr George Skea, from the Bridge Health Centre, be kept on. A picket is planned at the Blaenau Gwent LHB's office on the town's Station Hill tomorrow.