Grampound Surgery: further consultation on reduced service

Thank you to everyone who made their views known on the proposal to close Grampound Surgery. It seems that your protests have at least prevented any closure in the short term. The doctors have withdrawn their initial proposal.

However, we are not out of the woods yet: the doctors have now put forward an alternative proposal for severely reduced opening hours at Grampound. They held a public meeting in October 2011 where reaction from the local residents was still predominantly against this reduction in service level. Nevertheless, the partners have now submitted a formal proposal to the PCT asking for agreement to the reduced service at Grampound.

The PCT is carrying out a public consultation exercise with those patients of the practice who live in the Grampound and Sticker/Hewas Water area. A letter was sent to all those patients in early January 2012. You can download a copy of the letter from PCT letter.

Two drop-in sessions will also be held where patients can put their views to the PCT. They are:
Tuesday 17 January at Sticker Village Hall from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Wednesday 18 January at Grampound Village Hall from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.

See PCT website.

Patients can respond the PCT consultation online via the following link: Survey Monkey.

A copy of the formal submission made by the doctors to the PCT asking for approval of their proposal can be downloaded from Doctors' submission.

My view on the proposal:

Patients in the Grampound and Sticker/Hewas Water areas will hopefully have received by now another letter from the Primary Care Trust regarding the doctors’ latest plans for Grampound Surgery. If you are concerned about the future of this community facility, it is very important that you respond again to the PCT.

I am sure that most of you will feel that you have already expressed your views often enough to the doctors and to the PCT. You will be wondering why you have to do so again. However, this latest letter from the PCT constitutes the “official” consultation on the doctors’ plan B for Grampound. If there is not strong feedback from the parish on this proposal, it is likely to be accepted by the PCT.

My opinion is that the proposal will represent a significant reduction in service to the residents of Grampound. There will be fewer than half the present number of GP sessions at Grampound. Picking up prescriptions in future will require much more planning for the patient as the surgery will only be open for 3 half-day sessions as opposed to the current 5 days for most of each day. See below the summary of the changes.

The sessions proposed at the Merlin Centre will provide some benefit to residents of Sticker and Hewas Water. However, there will only be one GP session each week and so the majority of appointments for residents of those villages will have to be met by provision in Probus.

The other worrying aspect is that this latest proposal provides no guarantee that the surgery in Grampound will remain open in the longer term.

The PCT is holding a drop-in session at Grampound Village Hall on Wednesday 18 January between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Please call in at any time during this session – the PCT will be there, but not the doctors. If you cannot make it to that session, there is also a drop-in session at Sticker Village Hall on Tuesday 17 January between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

My recommendation is that you register your objection to the proposal with the PCT. Responses have to be with the PCT by 10 February at the latest, so if you have not already responded, please do so now.

Best wishes

Bob Egerton

I have submitted a formal response to the PCT on the proposal. You can download a copy (pdf file) from Response.

Grampound Parish Council’s View of the Surgery Proposals

Council members had a presentation from Drs Ball and Campbell just before their September meeting and later that meeting had a full discussion of the proposals.  It was clear that all members of the Parish Council have serious concerns about the new proposal and they are very much against any reduction in service or opening hours at Grampound which, inevitably, would be to the detriment of residents in our parish. 

This official view has been submitted in writing to the Surgery and the PCT and I urge every resident to make sure the PCT is made aware of their views too.

Allan Webb

Chairman, Grampound with Creed Parish Council

Email : awebb@grampound.org.uk Tel : 01726 883585

January 2012