A doctors’ surgery in Hove has reopened with dozens of patients, staff and supporters turning out for a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the sunshine.
The Burwash Surgery is one of three WellBN surgeries in Hove and Portslade – and the merger has proved a boon for the practice on the corner of Burwash Road and Poynings Drive.
The ribbon was cut by Hangleton and Knoll councillor Dawn Barnett and Hangleton and Knoll Project chief executive Jo Martindale, who also chairs the West Area Health Forum.
Jo Martindale said: “The reopening of this surgery is great news for our community.”
And Councillor Barnett said that it was “wonderful” to see the surgery open again – and that it had been missed, especially by older patients, mothers with young children and those who were less mobile.
She said: “We’ve been looking forward to this day.”
“It’s wonderful to have the surgery open again. I’ve had a tour and it looks fantastic and the refurbishment has gone very well.”
There was praise too for WellBN pharmacist Shilpa Patel who oversaw the crucial final phase of the reopening project which came to fruit yesterday (Tuesday 18 October).
For many years the surgery was a single-handed practice run by David Henderson. It became part of the Benfield Valley Healthcare Hub a few years after Dr Henderson retired as a GP (general practitioner).
And this year, the Benfield Valley Healthcare Hub, which also includes the County Clinic, in Old Shoreham Road, Portslade, merged with the Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre, in Western Road, Hove.
Lead partner Lindsay Coleman said that the Burwash branch surgery had closed “due to covid and staffing shortages more than two years ago”.
But she said: “As an outcome of the merger of the practices that now form WellBN, the Burwash branch has reopened.
“Since Dr Peter Devlin and I started working in Burwash in 2013, I have done everything I can to ensure that this little branch would continue and I am so happy that our doors are finally open.”
WellBN also has a charitable offshoot – the Robin Hood Health Foundation – which helps fund therapies that are not available on the NHS for less well-off patients.
This is great news. Does this mean the terrible service at the other Brighton WellBN practices will improve? Specifically, it is absolutely hopeless trying to get an appointment with a doctor at the Western Road Hove and Wellbeing Centre since they merged. You get parceled off to a nurse that looks blankly at you instead and can’t help you and then you have to wait again to see a GP often and the whole process takes weeks. There is simply no respect for patients time that have to take time of wor to waste time like this. Such a shame as this used to be one of the best practices in town and now it is a disaster in the last six months. Getting an appointment with a nurse when you specifically need to see one isn’t much better.
Fantastic. We need more access to GPs in the City.