Bargoed Hall Family Health Centre is set to close later this year with around 4,300 patients affected.
Health bosses and local politicians are set to meet to discuss the closure after the surgery said it would hand back its General Medical Services contract to Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.
Letters have been sent out by the health board to all 4,300 patients advising that the centre, in Cardiff Road, Bargoed, will close on September 30 this year. After this date, patients will be added to other local surgery lists.
Caerphilly Assembly Member Hefin David has written to health bosses outlining concerns over a lack of consultation and for reassurances over the future of Bryntirion Surgery, which also serves the area.
Dr David said: “Constituents have been contacting my office with understandable concerns about the closure and where this leaves them. I’d like to see services retained at Bargoed Hall and I’m calling for a rethink.
“It’s regrettable there was no consultation with local members or patients and in my meeting with the health board on July 14, I will be asking which local surgeries patients will be transferred to if this closure goes ahead.
“It’s important to establish whether in doing so, there will be a knock-on effect to waiting times elsewhere.”
Doctors running Bryntirion Surgery, in West Street, Bargoed, have also said they want to hand back their contract to the health board on November 30 this year.
However, instead of the practice closing, the health board has said it will take over its running if no-one can be found to take it on.
A spokeswoman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “The health board has been working through its process to consider all options available for the future provision of services to the patients currently registered at Bargoed Hall Family Health Centre this consideration has included engaging with our Local Medical Committee and Aneurin Bevan Community Health Council to come to the conclusion that patients would be allocated to other GP practices in the area for their ongoing care.
“The health board considered several factors, including the size of the practice, where patients live, the current difficulty in recruiting GPs and other local GP practices available in the area.
“The health board appreciates that this will be unsettling for patients, however we would like to assure patients that we will make all the necessary arrangements to ensure that all they are transferred to a GP practice local to where they live. However, patients will still have the opportunity to register with an alternative practice of their choice, if they wish to do so.”
what about the elderly and disabled patients who can get to Bargoed Hall by public transport, but will have to have a taxi there and back, to get to any other surgery.
Also Bargoed Hall is a two storey building with plenty of room for two surgeries if required. i actually live closer to Bryntirion than Bargoed Hall bur free bus pass to Bargoed Hall or six pounds to Bryntirion.
We must ask why the decline in the number of GP surgeries in the valleys ?
Is this a failure by the NHS not recruiting enough younger GP’s to replace our older GP’s ( who age and retire like the rest of our population ).
Or is it with the high numbers of sick and elderly patients ( our former heavy industries like coal;steel and iron – having left us with many who suffer from work related diseases )that many GP’s find the heavy workloads they face so daunting and depressing that many would prefer to work elsewhere ?
Primarily it is your first point – failure by the Aneurin Bevan board. This should be abolished and replaced by a body that puts patient care first.
Therein lies the problem – will we ever get a body who truly puts patient care first ? and the subsequent benefit of improved patient health.
Our doctors and nursing staff do an excellent job,but are not well enough supported by the organisation in which they work