BOSSES at a Hampshire GP surgery have denied services are being reduced following a merger with another practice.

It comes after concerns were raised by some patients at the Abbey Mead Surgery in Romsey about the long-term future of the GP practice following it joining forces with the town's Nightingale Surgery last year.

Among the fears was that the Abbey Mead building could be sold off for development and services brought together at the Nightingale Surgery site.

However health chiefs have said the move was about the survival of the Abbey Mead practice, because of the increasing demand on its services.

Patient Mark Viney said: “Call me cynical but looking at the location the surgery building stands in, this plot is ripe for development.

“Is changing the name to Abbey Well (trading name of Abbey Mead and Nightingale surgeries) and moving some of the doctors to Nightingale Surgery the start of selling off the site for housing?”

Other patients, who did not want to be named, fear that they will have to travel across one end of the town to the other if they cannot get routine appointments at Abbey Mead Surgery.

Julie Davies is business manager for the two surgeries and said the merger came about in a bid to improve services including the number of same day appointments doctors were able to offer.

She said: “Clearly while a doctor is offering these appointments they cannot offer routine slots. Doctors also provide minor operations appointments, women's health appointments, time for training students and junior doctors and all sorts of health-related meetings and courses.

“The work we are currently carrying out is to attempt to improve the number of routine appointments we have and also hopefully be able to lengthen these complex appointments, from our unusual 10 minutes, although we are not at this stage yet.”

Dr Ian Keith, vice chairman of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Medical Committee and a partner at another Romsey surgery, said the merger was about the survival of the general practice.

“General practice has never been under such pressure. We see one million people per day nationwide or 90 per cent of all contacts in the NHS.

“The Government has acknowledged that GP recruitment is not keeping pace with demand. General practice workload has risen sharply and GPs are now looking to work collaboratively in mergers, federations and networks in order to best use the scarce resources in workforce and premises. The Abbey Mead site is the only non-purpose built surgery in the town is severely constrained by space with no prospect of expansion.

“Practices nationwide and locally are facing closure under the strain. New innovative ways of working are essential to safeguard the best interests of patients. The partners of these practices are trying to future proof their practices in order to keep servicing the local population with high standards of care as they have done so admirably over many years. We should be supporting their forward thinking.”