Crowds gather as Blakeney GP surgery set to close
- Published
A meeting about a GP surgery closure in Blakeney was packed, with people queuing outside
Crowds packed a village hall for a meeting to discuss the potential closure of a GP surgery that could affect hundreds of people.
Holt Medical Practice runs the surgery in Blakeney, on the north Norfolk coast, which covers nearby villages.
It said the building did not meet accessibility standards, infection control and needed substantial investment.
About 200 people attended the meeting on Tuesday.
Blakeney has a population of about 700 but its surgery covers areas including Morston, Wiveton, Cley and Langham.
The surgery currently provides only prescriptions
Holt Medical Practice told the meeting it had already invested in its surgeries at Kelling and Melton Constable, where a higher proportion of its patients lived.
It said Blakeney served only 14% of patients and if it did expand, it was not certain of finding the doctors to staff it because of a national shortage of GPs.
But people from Blakeney, Cley, Stiffkey and Morston said that without a car it was difficult to get to either of the other surgeries. On public transport it could be more than a five-hour round trip.
North Norfolk's Conservative MP Duncan Baker told the BBC he had written to about 1,700 constituents who could be affected, because "I didn't think they would know what was happening".
He said about 425 people "chose to engage with that survey" and "99% of those were against the surgery shutting".
"Blakeney is quite possibly one of the older demographics on the north Norfolk coast and losing medical services in that village will be an absolute hammer blow to all of the community around there," Mr Baker said.
The proposal "doesn't sit comfortably in an area where we have an elderly and frail demographic, that people will lose their medical services," said MP Duncan Baker
A spokesperson for NHS Norfolk and Waveney said: "The primary care commissioning committee received a report in June and noted that the application from Blakeney Surgery would proceed to the consultation phase.
"The practice will continue to communicate with all registered patients and other local stakeholders to engage with this consultation...
"Once the consultation period is closed, all the feedback received from patients, their carers, staff and others will be submitted by the practice as part of its formal application to NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board."
Holt Medical Practice is currently holding a public consultation about the closure, external of the Blakeney surgery.
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