WHAT is going on in Oxfordshire regarding general practice surgeries?

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group is aiding their closure left, right and centre.

Practices in Banbury, Kidlington and Witney are due to close with little or no patient consultation prior to OCCG’s decision to close them.

Where has our democracy gone when this organisation can make significant changes to health services without prior consultation with our representatives such as district councils, town councils and patient forums at the practices being closed?

Some of these practices are closing because partners are retiring, some because they cannot afford to run them or, in the case of Deer Park in Witney, the contract tender value offered by OCCG was less than the existing contract.

OCCG advise me that: “Over recent years the range of services provided to patients in GP practices has grown and this has meant a wide range of professionals and clinicians working in primary care in addition to GPs.

“Larger practices are more resilient when a GP retires, is unwell or leaves and they are able to employ other health care professionals such as nurses and pharmacists to provide some specialist care and support to GPs.

“So bigger practices are able to have more skill mix and capacity to design opportunities in seeing their patients. In Oxfordshire, it is noticeable that the number of smaller practices is declining steadily as they have either merged with other practices or closed altogether over the past few years.”

Let me say in reply that I do not think that Virgin Care, which administers Deer Park Medical Centre, is a small concern.

At Deer Park Medical Centre, patients can get an appointment reasonably quickly yet at the other practices in Witney you can wait three or four weeks for a routine appointment.

This wait will only increase when the 4,000-plus patients are dispersed to these other practices in the town.

Come on OCCG, stop being transient, listen to the patients and keep Deer Park Medical Centre open.

MARK R CHURCHILL

Wenman Road

Witney