A GP surgery in Locks Heath is to close at the end of March despite a campaign by patients to keep the facility open.
Locks Road Surgery
The 7,000 patients registered at the Locks Road surgery will either have to transfer to the Whiteley surgery in Yew Tree Drive – around three miles away – or else to a new surgery operating out of Fareham Community Hospital by then.
Services at the Locks Road surgery are to be run down over the next three months until the official closure on March 31.
A new GP practice will be set up and run from the community hospital in Brook Lane, Park Gate, from January 7.
The new hospital-based practice will be run by the partners at the Brook Lane surgery and will be in addition to their services at their current surgery.
Patients registered at Locks Road will be able to switch to the new surgery at the hospital or to the Whiteley surgery.
Dr Graham Newman, Senior Partner at Brook Lane Surgery, said: “This new service will provide more patients with the opportunity of being part of a long-established practice while being able to attend bright new consultation facilities in the hospital.
“We think it is a great way of combining the old and the new and we are looking forward to getting started in the community hospital.”
The shake-up in GP services for the Western Wards follows a period of consultation with the community by Hampshire LINk last year.
As a result of that the Southampton, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth Primary Care Trust (SHIP PCT) Cluster Board decided in January 2012 that the most suitable option for providing sustainable primary care medical services for the existing and future population of the Western Wards was to establish a GP service in Fareham Community Hospital.
Last year a campaign by patients called on doctors to keep the Locks Road surgery oopen for the thousands of patients that are registered to use it. The doctors wantred to consolidate their services at the Whiteley surgery and said the Locks Road building was no longer suitable for a surgery.
At the time NHS Hampshire stepped in and blocked the closure pending further consultation and investigation. That led to the decision to go ahead with the closure after all.
A group of patients had even considered forming their own trust and establishing their own surgery in the community.
James Bawn, Head of Development, Capital Planning, at the cluster, said: “The opportunity to expand the services provided at Fareham Community Hospital to include GP services is a really exciting development offering local people a single place to go for a wide range of health services.
“There is car parking at the site and the first three hours are free for users of the hospital.”