RESIDENTS in West Oxfordshire have been urged to join the fight for better GP services at two upcoming public meetings.

Witney town councillor Brenda Churchill called on locals to make a show of force in the hope of getting the town's Deer Park Medical Centre reopened.

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, the board of GPs who commission (buy) county health services, announced the meetings last week.

The first will be held at Witney Corn Exchange on Wednesday, November 1, and the second at Carterton Town Hall on Wednesday, November 8.

Both will run between 6.30pm and 8.30pm and include a short presentation and 'round table discussions'.

The CCG announced its public consultation on the future of West Oxfordshire GP services after it was ordered to come up with a new plan for primary care and related services in July following the closure of Deer Park.

Mrs Churchill, who is also a member of the Deer Park Patient Participation Group, said: "We want as many people as possible to go to these meetings and air their views.

"This is their chance to have their say and let the CCG know how they feel.

"We can stop it becoming a round table affair we can have a proper debate."

The CCG announced last year that Deer Park would close because, it said, it could not find anyone to run the centre after Virgin Care's contract expired.

After it finally closed in March and thousands were suddenly left without a GP, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ordered an investigation by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel into the way the CCG had managed the closure.

The report revealed that, as of July, more than 1,000 former Deer Park patients out of about 4,000 had yet to register elsewhere and urged OCCG to ensure these patients are registered with another practice.

The IRP concluded the CCG did not do enough to engage with patients and demanded it create a comprehensive plan for GP care in Witney.

Last month campaigners raised concerns that the plan was making little progress and urged OCCG to engage with patients in the town.

The CCG responded that it was already taking a number of steps to get the plan into shape.

Spokeswoman Julia Stackhouse said a draft of the final 'locality plan' would be 'ready for publication – following engagement and input' in early December.

Mrs Churchill added: "They're going to have to do something because over the next 15 years there are going to be 7,500 homes built in Witney and the population is going to go up by 44,000.

"You can't build those houses and not provide a decent doctors' surgery."

To book a place and get more information email cscsu.talkinghealth@nhs.net or call 01865 334638.