Four Brighton GP surgeries are set to close and patients transferred to a new practice which for some patients is miles away.
Many patients at the branch surgeries of Stanford Medical Centre and Allied Medical learnt the news from social media this week.
The affected branches are School House Surgery in Hertford Road, Church Surgery in Saunders Park View, Islingword Road Surgery in Islingword Road and Cockroft Surgery.
The two surgeries are planning to close all four and move their patients to the new Preston Barracks Medical Centre on Lewes Road. After consulting patients, their proposals will be considered by the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board.
While Church Surgery and Cockroft Surgery are fairly close to Preston Barracks, both School House Surgery and Islingword Road Surgery are just over a mile away.
A consultation has been launched, which patients can complete here until 2 March. Some patients have received letters, but many have not.
The consultation says: “In the proposal, Stanford Medical Centre and Allied Medical Practice would both move into the new building but would continue to operate as separate practices.
“You would not need to register again as a patient and would keep seeing the same staff as you do now.
“The new medical centre at Preston Barracks would offer modern, high‑quality clinical rooms, improved disabled access, up‑to‑date facilities, and the opportunity to offer more GP and nurse appointments.”
That’s all well and good. The practices are still going to operate independently. Are they going to get anymore staff (that includes G.P’s)?
My G.P seemed stressed when I saw him. No one had told me about my test results. This meant I started my course of antibiotics 2 weeks later than I should have.
I won’t be staying with them, as is I have to rely on lifts or taxis to get to the practice.
As for the surgeries, l hope it works and whatever that social enterprise is called IC24 (?), you need to give them the staff.
IC24 is the out of hours service.
I wonder if this is the first step towards a full merger, since there is not many benefits, outside of sharing building costs to move in together but run independently from each other.
There’s a risk of reducing accessibility to the surgery, for some it might get closer, but for more, their surgery is now going to get further away.
The timing is interesting as well, since surveys have been going out around online hospitals, which is effectively monitoring at home via WiFi.
Maybe it’s my warped sense of humour but the idea of home monitoring via wi-fi amused me, when am I going to get a wi-fi card implanted and will it give hackers control over me – Wallace and Gromit’s robotic trousers come to mind. On a more serious note, not everyone has wi-fi access yet.
The surgery I’m registered with moved in with another in a new location some way from both existing buildings over ten years ago, and a lot of people lost out on accessibility – I now need two buses instead of a 5 to 10 minute walk for example. The surgeries operate independently.
Absolutely! When I think of wards in the hospital, with everyone’s monitor all displaying on a centralised board, the only difference is distance. The home-based technology was being used a fair bit during COVID to monitor O2 stats as a way of easing pressure in the hospitals, for obvious reasons. I say Wifi, but it’s a SIM card installed into a small sender/receiver rather than Virgin Media.
It’s interesting technology, and research does show people heal better at home, BUT…we need the community infrastructure and roaming-based teams in place to support it, otherwise that pressure is likely just to be displaced into the ambulance service.
I am currently a patient at the Islingword Rd surgery and am very unhappy with this news.
I can currently walk to the surgery for my appointments, but Preston Barracks is TWO bus rides each way! I will now have to spend £6.30 minimum just to see my Dr, let alone the extra time it will take to get those buses with the terrible service provided by BH Buses meaning more time away from work.
I don’t recall ANY consultation over this, and it feels very much like a cost cutting measure.
Why not walk it, get some fresh air and exercise, probably need to go to the doctor’s less. 23 goes from pepperpot to Preston barracks, no need to change bus.
It’s appalling for lots of local people , young and old who use the Islingword Rd surgery as it’s so convenient and well used. I’ve only just heard about it via a friend but feel we should really try to stop,this happening .
This makes me feel, that soon we will not have any GP’s.
For me, it raises a question about whether we are delivering GP services in a modern way, linked in with facilities like community spaces, pharmacies, dentists, etc?