GP care shake-up in Prestatyn after surgeries close

Dr Chris Stockport at the practice in Prestatyn

A new primary health service has started in Denbighshire after three GP surgeries closed due to problems recruiting new doctors.

The local health board has recruited its own doctors to run two former GP practices in Prestatyn and satellite sites in Meliden and Ffynnongroyw.

Healthy Prestatyn Iach will work with a similar service in Rhuddlan, where another GP contract has ended.

Staff include midwives, pharmacists, physiotherapists and diet specialists.

They will work alongside GPs at Rhuddlan, Prestatyn's Central Surgery - with its satellite surgeries in Meliden and Ffynnongroyw - and Seabank Surgery, also in Prestatyn.

The shake-up in the service was prompted by the three GP practices experiencing difficulties in recruiting new doctors.

Dr Chris Stockport, from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), said: "This arrangement will mean that patients can be seen directly by the person most appropriate for their care needs, while also ensuring that GPs can devote their time to those patients who need to see a doctor.

"This is a pioneering model of primary care for BCUHB and the whole of Wales in terms of the scale on which it will be done.

"Elements of it have been used before in other parts of the UK but not for 23,000 people in one service."

The practices in Prestatyn will move to the former Ty Nant council offices from December after plans were approved this week.