The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Patients at the soon to close Pennygate Surgery have called for it to remain open after it was claimed the retiring doctor had offered to hire it out to health officials rent free.
However South Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) has told The Voice it has not received a formal offer regarding renting the surgery and a 90-day consultation on the future will take place in the autumn – after the service has moved to Johnson Hospital following Pennygate’s closure on September 7.
That’s despite the CCG’s Andrew Rix saying at the meeting he was aware of the free offer being mentioned.
It comes after general practitioner Dr Azmeena Nathu, who also owns the building, announced her retirement.
Pennygate Surgery was the subject of a damning Care Quality Commission (CQC) report at the beginning of the year, and a subsequent update said that improvements in some areas at the practice had yet to be made.
Supporters of the surgery gathered at a meeting on Monday where Coun Angela Newton told the gathering Dr Nathu had offered the CCG the use of the building for free until March 31 and that moving the surgery would cost the NHS £80,000.
However a spokesman for the CCG said in a statement: “There has been no formal offer to the CCG to use the existing Pennygate Health Centre premises as reported by Councillor Newton.
“Pennygate Health Centre will close on September 7, to ensure patients have access to ongoing primary care services we have made arrangements for patients registered at Pennygate Health Centre to transfer to the new Johnson Surgery for Pennygate patients based at the Johnson Community Hospital,
“However, we will not be making any longer term decisions until we have completed a 90 day consultation which we will launch in the autumn – this will seek the views of local people before we make a final decision early in 2019.”
It was also claimed at Monday’s meeting that of the two remaining doctors at Pennygate, one would not be taking up the offer to move to the Johnson Hospital.
Concerns were expressed over how patients would get to the hospital and over the parking provisions there.
But it was decided to lobby the CCG to keep the practice open at Pennygate.
South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes told the meeting: “Local people deserve to have a doctor available as they need it in the way they have in the past with no reduction in the quality of service.
“By far the best way to have the service accessible would be for the health authority to do a deal with Dr Nathu to rent the existing premise or find an alternative premise in this neighbourhood.
“It would be much more beneficial for if that facility was available to local people in the way that it is now.”
Mr Rix of the CCG told the meeting that he was unable to talk about the rent free offer but said plans to move to Johnson Hospital were “well down the road.”
He said: “We’ve had nine weeks since Dr Nathu said she wanted us to retire for continuity of service and where we have a degree of control over how those services are provided.
“We didn’t take that decision lightly to move to Johnson Hospital but Dr Nathu decided to retire and she owns the building.”
On not renting the current building he added: “There are contractual reasons that are private and confidential that I’m not in a position to discuss.”
