A CITY GP practice is to be taken over by another surgery after the staff handed back the contract.

South Oxford Health Centre will now be run as a 'branch surgery' by the team at St Bartholomew's Health Centre in East Oxford.

All staff currently at South Oxford will remain, including former partner Dr Nick Wooding, and the surgery premises are staying open.

However the way things are run at the surgery could change.

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The practice managers at South Oxford had struggled for years to recruit new doctors and battled increasing workloads and costs.

They announced earlier this year that they were no longer prepared to run the surgery.

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG), which buys health services for the county's residents, then put the contract for running the health centre out to tender.

St Bartholomews applied and won the contract, and will now run the practice as a 'branch surgery' from August 1.

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Dr Wooding said: “We are delighted that the future of our surgery is secured and we can continue to provide the quality of care and personal service which we know our patients appreciate.

"We are hugely grateful for the loyal support of our patients, staff and the Patient Participation Group (PPG) over the past few months."

Dr Alison Fairley from St Bartholomew's said her team were 'looking forward to developing services for the benefits of all our patients'.

She added: "We are grateful to OCCG for facilitating this."