Health and care leaders in Sunderland have confirmed the forthcoming closure of a GP branch site after considering feedback from patients and stakeholders.
Despite efforts to recruit a permanent GP over the past five years, Monument Surgeries’ branch site in Pennywell runs solely with locum GPs with no substantive GP in place.
A practice nurse is only available two days a week and for patients, the quality of services and appointment availability is often restricted due to lack of staff.
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More than 550 responses were received during an eight-week patient consultation at the end of 2021.
Although the majority of patients felt they received a ‘good’ or ‘very good’ service in Pennywell (57%), many acknowledged the difficulties in accessing appointments with around 82% indicating the importance of getting an appointment when they need one.
At a meeting of NHS Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) Primary Care Commissioning Committee in January 2022, health leaders supported Monument Surgeries’ application to close its branch site in Pennywell.
Work is already under way to directly contact thousands of patients who are registered at Monument Surgeries in Pennywell and to support them to register at alternative GP practices nearby, which are all accepting new patients.
This work will continue over the coming months with the Pennywell branch site expected to close on May 31, 2022.
Health chiefs have stressed that there will be no impact on other services delivered from Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre which will remain open, continuing to deliver its services as usual for the local community.
NHS Sunderland CCG is the body responsible for planning and buying GP services in Sunderland.
Clare Nesbit, Director of People and Primary Care at Sunderland CCG, said: “Supporting the closure of any GP service is always a very difficult decision but we believe this will mean a better service for people in Pennywell in the long term.
“Patients themselves have acknowledged and even expressed concern about the difficulty of getting an appointment in Pennywell with some waiting up to two weeks and we hope to see this improve as patients register at alternative nearby practices.
“We will work closely with Monument Surgeries and other GP practices in the area over the coming months to make sure there is a seamless transition for patients.”
Sunderland GP Alliance holds the contract for running the Monument Surgeries branch in Pennywell and decided to proceed with the closure application in December 2021.
In a report prepared for a recent meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, health chiefs confirmed the Pennywell site continues to face several challenges.
This included clinics having to be stood down on a number of occasions due to lack of staff and limited patient choice due to locum GPs in the area being “predominantly male.”
Following the CCG decision to approve the closure of the Pennywell branch, patients will be informed of the next steps and supported to register with an alternative GP practice.
Dr Emily Hadaway, Head of GP Clinical Services at Sunderland GP Alliance, said: “We know this will be sad news for the community but the quality of service we are able to offer in Pennywell is just not as good as it should be, or indeed what people in Pennywell deserve.
“We have been trying to recruit a permanent GP now for many years without success and cannot continue as we are.
“We are very grateful for the ongoing support of partners at other nearby practices and will be working closely with patients to support them to register with a different GP.
“We don’t want people to panic. There will be plenty of time to register at another practice and we will be in touch directly with patients to make sure they know what to do and how to get to their new GP practice from Pennywell.”
Patients who are currently registered with Monument Surgeries in Pennywell will have the option of several alternative GP practices within close proximity to Pennywell.
Alternatively they can choose to stay registered with Monument Surgeries and access appointments at Barmston Medical Centre or The Galleries Health Centre in Washington.
