Decision due on future of doctors' surgery (From Daily Echo)

D-Day for threatened Locks Heath Branch Surgery

11:56am Tuesday 31st January 2012 in Health

THE future of a threatened Hampshire doctors’ surgery is set to be decided today.

Locks Road Branch Surgery in Locks Heath has been earmarked for closure, after surgery bosses announced they wanted to shut it.

Patients called for it to be saved – but NHS Hampshire says the current building is not up to standard and a new surgery would cost around £800,000.

A survey gave patients three options – moving to a surgery in Whiteley, extending the surgery at Brook Lane or establishing a GP service at Fareham Community Hospital. Nearly 90 per cent opted for the Fareham Community Hospital proposal.

NHS bosses from the SHIP Primary Care Trust Cluster were today expected to approve the closure and new service at Fareham Community Hospital.

But the Doctor’s Corner Patients Group has urged them to defer the decision.

Chairman Martin Reeve said: “The level of participation in the survey was pathetic – they only managed to get responses from 621 people out of 7,000 patients.”

The meeting takes place at 1pm today at St James’ Hospital in Portsmouth.