No Heating Needed at Silverstone Surgery Closure Meeting
| Published: 19th November 2008 20:04 |
The Surgery on Whittlebury Road in the centre of Silverstone
No heating was required when over 140 residents from Silverstone and surrounding villages, packed into the Chapel Room in Silverstone on Tuesday night to listen to reasoning behind the application to the PCT from Dr Supple’s practice to close the Silverstone Surgery and transfer all the patients to the new facility in Towcester.
Attending the meeting were representatives from the Parish Council, PCT and GP Practice;
- Dalia Share - Acting Head of Northamptonshire Primary Care Trust
- June Rees - PCT, with responsibility for GP Services contracts
- Steve Capewell - Parish Council Chair
- Linda Paice - Parish Clerk
- Ann Waters - Practice Manager
Apologies were received from Dr Supple who could not be there as he was covering the evening surgery for an absent colleague.
The meeting was told that the decision to close the surgery, that covers around 2000 individuals from the building in Whittlebury Road, was made due to a number of issues from maintenance and upkeep of the current building to financial restraints on a frozen budget. The PCT explained the process that has to be undertaken if a GP significantly alters the terms of their contract with them including a Health Impact Assessment and a Public Consultation.
A considerable number of residents voiced a wide range of questions, concerns and opinions during the two hour meeting. Amongst other issues, the question was raised whether the Silverstone Surgery is to become a victim to the “super surgery” currently under construction in Towcester. The new surgery will accommodate the medical requirements of around 7 - 8000 residents once opened in the Spring and questions arose as to whether the cost of such a facility can only be met by the savings to be made by closing branch facilities such as Silverstone, despite original plans to have a new Silverstone facility as well. In addition, transport, parking and access issues were raised and justification and more details sought on the specific reasons why closure has been proposed.
The meeting also discussed next steps and residents are urged to contact the Clerk to the Parish Council with nominations for a committee that will represent the residents during the forthcoming fight to keep the facility open. Nominations to be sent to silverstoneparishcouncil@btconnect.com to include the name of the person you are nominating and your location (village name) no later than 5th December.
What do you think?
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
