Community anger as doctors surgery to close

 

The Llanfyllin Group Practice - which administers four surgery sites in Llanfyllin, Llansantffraid, Llanrhaeadr and Four Crosses – has stated in a public meeting, that it will no longer be offering GP, nurse or dispensing services from Llansantffraid from August 1.

 

And according to attendees at the meeting, the Group Practice has identified two main reasons for the proposed closure, the first being that it is not economically viable due to the GPs contract that was brought in by the Welsh Government in 2004 - and the second is that the Local Health Board has hired the premises to deliver local primary care services.

 

The decision has shocked the community.

 

Doug Williams, Chair of Llansantffraid Community Council, said: “Losing the surgery will be a real blow to the local community and will potentially put lives at risk.  The Community Council has not given up hope that we can save the surgery and I am really keen to work with local politicians to see if a better solution can be found.”

 

His deputy on the council, Dennis Edwards, added that “local people deserve better than this” and pointed to the fact that the service had been available for more than 100 years.

 

And now local politicians have added their support with both Liberal Democrats and Conservatives calling for the doctors to have a re-think.

 

Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales Williams Powell (right) has met with Mr Edwards and said: “The closure date does seem to be extremely soon, given that the plans for the closure have come to the attention of the local community only quite recently. I will shortly be in touch with the Llanfyllin Group Practice to discuss the issue with them in detail.”

 

And Montgomeryshire AM Russell George said the closure would be a “huge blow to community”.

 

He said: “I am very alarmed to hear that the practice is going to remove services from a community because it believes it is economically unviable to carry on. If doctors at the practice are citing the GP contract as the principal reason forcing this closure, then the Welsh Government and the minister responsible have questions to answer.

 

“I have written to the Health Minister asking her to urgently examine this issue because I am concerned that the underlying contractual issues, coupled with Welsh Government health cuts, are going to disproportionately affect rural GP practices not just in Montgomeryshire but right across Wales.”

"As you are aware the practice has struggled financially and administratively to provide services over four sites rather than the more usual one or two. As well, our other main source of income, dispensing, which supported the four site service has also been squeezed in recent years. The new contract has meant we are providing services for 1,000 more patients than six years ago with little increase in income and our main site has become busier as a result."