MORE needs to be done to prevent primary care from collapsing across Oxfordshire, a health watchdog has said.

Healthwatch Oxfordshire executive director Rosalind Pearce has called for more collaborative work to prevent GPs from terminating their contracts and closing down their surgeries.

She said: "In the long term, it is very difficult to see how you can prevent other surgeries ending their contracts, and clearly much work needs to be done looking at the reasons why GP surgeries are under so much pressure.

"Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) and the patient participant groups need to work together to look for long-term solutions."

Her comments come after patients at Kennington Health Centre were informed that Botley Medical Centre –five miles away – will be taking over the running of the surgery.

Ms Pearce added: "The first priority has to be the patients and we welcome any solution that prevents stress and inconvenience to them, allows GP access close to people’s homes and enables surgeries to stay small.

"This also prevents more pressure on the other surrounding surgeries.

"But more needs to be done to prevent contract terminations such as this in the future."

From April 1 Botley Medical Centre, which already has 9,500 patients on its books will be in charge of 6,500 Kennington patients, who will be 'automatically registered' at the Botley practice.

The announcement comes after patients were informed in October last year that Kennington's GPs 'reluctantly' terminated their contract with OCCG because of the 'challenges facing the surgery', despite receiving a 'good' rating overall by the Care Quality Commission in the same month.

A letter to Kennington patients from the CCG said: "The GPs of Kennington Health Centre are committed to providing high quality patient care and reluctantly gave notice to terminate their contract.

"The contract will come to an end on March 31, at which point the premises of Kennington Health Centre will become a branch surgery of Botley Medical Centre."

Botley Medical Centre practice manager Caroline Jones said: "Our priority was to ensure local patients could continue to access high quality health services in Kennington.

"We are going to ensure a smooth transition and work closely with current doctors and practice staff to maintain the level of care patients in Kennington have come to expect."

All staff, including admin roles, will stay the same at Kennington and patients will continue to access their medical care from the site.

Botley Medical Centre Patient Participation Group (PPG) chairman Harry Dickinson said: "The PPG is delighted with this development.

"Economies of scale will provide greater opportunities to provide specialist services to the population of Botley, Kennington and the surrounding villages.

"We look forward to working with Kennington Health Centre PPG in the future."

Botley Medical Centre has three partners and one salaried GP and was rated as 'requires improvement' overall after an inspection in July last year.

For more information call 0800 052 6088 or email patient.services@oxfordshireccg.nhs.uk.