Locks Heath GP services to move to hospital as surgery closes
PATIENTS fighting plans to close a doctors’ surgery have vowed not to give up after health officials decided to move the GP service to a community hospital.
NHS Hampshire announced plans to axe the Locks Road surgery in Locks Heath, known locally as Doctor’s Corner.
The PCT says the surgery is in a poor state and needs to be refurbished, but that would be too expensive.
And after carrying out a survey across the western wards in Fareham, the PCT decided that the new community hospital in Sarisbury is the best option.
The surgery serves 7,000 patients.
Martin Reeve, of the Doctor’s Corner patient group, said he was disappointed with the decision.
‘Access to the hospital isn’t good,’ he said.
‘It’s outside our area. There are no buses. Parking is difficult up there.
‘They are going to cram more doctors in and put more patients in where there is no parking.
‘It’s going to be difficult for a lot of people.
‘Many people walk to Doctor’s Corner. The hospital is a mile or so away.
‘So we are going to challenge it.
‘There are various procedures for challenging decisions like this. It’s in the public interest. So we are going to carry on for a while.
‘People are disappointed. Some of them are angry.’
Dr Stuart Ward, medical director for the Southampton, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth PCT, said: ‘I would like to thank everyone who took the time to share their views by filling in a survey or attending a drop-in event.
‘Following the board decision we will now develop plans to establish a GP service at Fareham Community Hospital.’
Dr Ward added that services would continue from the surgery until the new GP service is ready.
Patients were given three options – to move to Whiteley or another local practice, to extend the Brook Lane surgery to accommodate more patients from a wider area, or to establish a GP service at the community hospital.
A total of 88 per cent of patients surveyed chose the community hospital as their preferred location.
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Comments
There are 23 comments to this article
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sidious
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 05:34 PMSorry Cyth Raul - I thought you had connections with the PG. I guess that my questions will remain unanswered for the time being. I'm interested as there is a question as to who the LR surgery building belongs to. It was my understanding that it was a privately-owned building that belonged to one of the partners, who wanted to sell it and retire. If that's the case, someone would have to buy it for a surgery to remain in LR. Would that money come from the practice or from public money? Maybe these are questions that were looked at by the Trust and that influenced their decision.
Cyth Raul
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 05:10 PM@ 17 Your question "Doesn't anyone from the PG have an answer to my original questions?" I haven't a clue try and contact them see what they say.
louse
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:27 PMMust be a match made in heaven - or not. I am sure Chris would be most amused :):):)
sidious
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:22 PMThank you for your contribution to what was a useful debate.
sidious
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:05 PMSorry Cyth - I forgot to log my partner out from our shared PC. I apologise for the individual who likes to make comments without actually having anything pertinent to say. It's in his nature.
louse
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:54 PMOh deary me. Steven Peters = sidious = elliotc. Really must remember to log in and out properly so that all your many faces do not get confused hohoho!!!
elliotc
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:14 AM@16 OK, I think I get it now. What I think you're saying is that while the PG WANTED the Trust to carry on exhaustively exploring the possibilities of a new build, the Trust subsequently decided not to, making my question hypothetical, as far as you're concerned. However, the nub of this article imples that the PG isn't willing to accept the Trust's decision and that it wants to try and keep the surgery where it is, in one form or another; therefore someone must be expecting the whole business to be exhaustively reviewed, with all the financial implications that might bring. Doesn't anyone from the PG have an answer to my original questions?
Cyth Raul
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:12 AM@15 your apology is graciously accepted. In answer to your question .... since the selection has been made there is no logical reason for me nor anyone to express where money should come from for a "now" hypothetical situation. The sentence ""that the NHS PCT Cluster Board postpone a decision until such time that proper consultation and exploration of a new build option based upon logical sound and unbiased reasoning be exhausted" contains the only occurance of the word "exhausted" within my post. The sentence does NOT mean the Doctors Corner Patient Group required " an exhaustive review" with financial implications to take place, from my understanding, it merely means that the dialogue that was taking place with the PCT over certain issues relating to the PCT's objections to a new build required further time and reasoning for it to be completed. The use of the word EXHAUSTED = COMPLETED in this case.One hopes this clarifys the sentence and helps your understanding.Asking questions is a good thing.... making assumptions is not.
sidious
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:20 PMApology accepted Cyth Raul, but posting your comment implies that you have an opinion of your own and I assume that sides with the Patients' Group. What I'm asking is whether the Patients' Group fully understands the financial implication of expecting an exhaustive review when the Trust has already come to a conclusion as well as the financial implication of rebuilding the Locks Road Surgery. As an interested party, you must have some sort of answer to the question, as I can't believe you expect the money to appear from nowhere.
Cyth Raul
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 06:18 PMI apologise for my post being long and convoluted....however I will have to correct you on your deductions and point you to the following from my post."This was asked to be attached to the Hampshire Link Survey report for completeness and accuracy so that future readers can appreciate ALL the information that was available to the Cluster Board members before their meeting took place. At present this has NOT been carried out." where "this" referred to above being the Doctors Corner Patient Group Survey report. It is not that the surveys offer different conclusions but that FACT the two surveys are NOT at present BOTH freely available to be read and compared TOGETHER by interested readers even though they have been asked to be. To partly redress this ive posted the results table for people to view if they wish to along with the general findings within the Doctors Corner Patient Group Survey report. I hope this clarifys things. Once again I refer you to my previous answer in that it's not upto me to tell you how money should be raised since im only reporting what was said nothing more.
sidious
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 01:32 PMUnfortunately, your post is so long and convoluted, it makes it somewhat difficult to read. However and correct me if I'm wrong, it seems to boil down to results from the official survey being different to one carried out by the patients' group, since there is mention of more than one survey. Obviously, it's in a trust's best interests to look at providing a service whilst making it economical for tax payers as well as for those responsible for providing that service. I'm guessing but I assume that it's in the best interests of the patients' group to make sure that the service remains at its present location. Bias is subjective, therefore I'm not inclined to agree that the Trust's survey was more or less biased that the patient Group's survey. Can I ask again, since I assume that the Patients' Group has looked into everything, who are you expecting to pay for what you're asking for?
Cyth Raul
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:54 PM@11 your questions are perfectly sound and reasonable ones to ask ..... however it is not me you should be asking them to, s the purpose of my posting was stated in the sentences following the quotation you selected namely, "All of the above when considered with respect to the standards required and expected from public bodies concerning fair unbiased representation and public accessibility to all of the facts have tainted this survey in such a way that the Hampshire Link Survey report as submitted to the NHS (PCT) Cluster Board has led to a serious misrepresentation of the information available at the time." Do you agree ?
sidious
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 11:07 PM@10 "The recommendation as put forward was as follows "that the NHS PCT Cluster Board postpone a decision until such time that proper consultation and exploration of a new build option based upon logical sound and unbiased reasoning be exhausted." I have a question or two: who are you expecting to pay for this expensive sounding exhaustive consultation and exploration, and who are you expecting to pay for this new build that you're asking for?
Cyth Raul
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 07:02 PMThe Hampshire Link Survey report in it's present form OMITS from it's main body and published appendices a breakdown analysis table for it's own question 5 and also the submitted question on behalf of The Doctors Corner Patient Group. The Hampshire Link Survey report is downloadable here http:www.hampshire-link.co.uk The omission of the corresponding breakdown analysis table for the question submitted by the Doctors Corner Patient Group is cause for particular CONCERN, for although reported within the Hampshire Link Survey report the way in which the findings with regard to this question have been recorded contain an error and use numerical values which are not contextually explained. The corresponding breakdown analysis table for the question submitted by the Doctors Corner Patient Group is hereby given below for the sake of transparency and fairness of the reporting of statistical data together with other results from their report. Question Asked by the Doctors Corner Patient Survey Please rate the following options according to your preference. ( 1 being your most favoured choice: 4 being your least favoured choice ) 1 2 3 4 Rating Response most least Average Count I would like to attend the Whiteley 1% (1) 1%(1) 5.2%(5) 92.8%(90) 3.9 97 Surgery I would like Doctor's Corner 80.1%(121) 4.6%(7) 14.6%(22) 0.7%(1) 1.36 151 Locks Road Surgery to remain open I would like a new surgery built in Locks Heath in 13.7%(16) 73.5%(86) 10.3(12) 2.6%(3) 2.02 117 Lockswood Area I would like to attend the Fareham 5.7%(7) 27.9%(34) 63.9%(78) 2.5%(3) 2.63 122 Community Hospital Please write any other option you can offer, andor any comments you may have 55 Answered Question 156 Skipped Question 3 A Grouped Preference Ranking for the 156 people who answered the question above was given by the Doctors Corner Patient Group within their report and submitted to the board, This was asked to be attached to the Hampshire Link Survey report for completeness and accuracy so that future readers can appreciate ALL the information that was available to the Cluster Board members before their meeting took place. At present this has NOT been carried out. Rank 1:- The Most Preferred Grouped Option "I would like a new surgery built in Locks Heath in Lockswood Area" 87.2% of the response count (117) selected this choice as either of their top two options. Rank 2:- "I would like the Doctor's Corner Surgery to remain open" 84.8% of the response count (151) selected this choice as either of their top two options. Rank 3:- "I would like to attend the Fareham Community Hospital" 33.6% of the response count (122) selected this choice as either of their top two options. Rank 4:-The Least Preferred Grouped Option "I would like to attend the Whiteley surgery" only 2.06% of the response count of (97) selected this choice as either of their top two options. The results obtained from the Doctors Corner Survey question clearly show that the respondents would firstly like the Locks Road Surgery to remain open some 80.1% putting this as their most preferred option. In addition when a grouped analysis for the respondents first and second preferences is examined we see that the two most overwhelming statistics namely, 87.2% for the new build option and 84.8% for Locks Road to remain open can be seen as hugely popular especially as only 33.6% for Fareham Community Hospital and 2.06% for Whiteley resulted. The major finding of the Hampshire Link survey namely that when "Participants were asked to state which of the options they preferred. 440 participants answered the question with 181 (29%) of participants declining. Resulting in 88.9% (391) selecting the option to establish a GP service in Fareham Community Hospital." In reply The Doctors Corner Patient Group state, "Are we to believe 181 people apparently did not reply to the fundamental question relating specifically to the Locks Road Surgery? Or was it the case that this not insignificant 29% of the people who replied to the Hampshire Link survey actually commented and made their own democratic choice by stating another option which was then seemingly classed as "corrupted data" and hence was not used? In the words of the Doctors Corner Patient Group report, "Because people selected their own method of expression,the commenting or as the report uses "declining" would imply a level of anger within the respondents as to the options submitted. And hence should still be recorded within the body of the report, with a caveat expressing the reasoning for it's omission. But certainly not "swept under the carpet" and forgotten." The Hampshire Link report then, according to the Doctors Corner Patient Group, " gently guides us into the belief via the pretty bar chart that a massive 88.9% wish to establish a GP surgery at Fareham Community Hospital, when in fact adding back in the so deemed "corrupted data" we arrive at the more modest 63%. " This is further compounded by the fact that it "is NOT 63% of ALL the people who had the opportunity to offer their opinion , NOT EVEN 63% of the patients directly affected but MERELY those 391 deemed not to have "declined" the question out of the 621 respondents." The "potential" survey response population size under the conditions laid out by Hampshire Link for their survey implementation strategy is estimated in the order of 30000 PEOPLE being based upon a conservative calculation of 23rds of total patient lists sizes for the surgery's mentioned within the Hampshire Link report, the remaining 13rd being approximated by those under the age of 16. From an examination of the Hampshire Link Survey results where 84.2% of the 621 respondents attend the Locks Road Surgery, the Doctors Corner Patient Group ask Would it have been more incisive and cost effective to poll only those patients directly affected in the first place? As can be seen from The Doctors Corner Survey the Fareham Community Hospital was only ranked third out of four, they argue this is, "Hardly comparable with the 88.9% most highly ranked preference resulting from the Hampshire Link survey." The Doctors Corner Patient Group further point out, that this significant difference is further eluded to when they examined question 5 from the Hampshire Link survey where it is clearly stated that the distance from home to the GP practice is of paramount importance to the respondents being ranked 1 within the Hampshire Link survey where rank 1 is the most important. ( See Question 5 within the Hampshire Link report ) Also it is reported 45.3% of the respondents currently walk to their surgery ( See Question 3 within the Hampshire Link report ) Since the majority of the respondents were from the Locks Road area ( See Question 1 within the Hampshire Link report ) they deduce that most of the respondents that walk must specifically walk to the Locks Road Surgery. It is often stated a GP surgery needs to be near the centre of gravity of the respective patient distribution this logic is clearly shown by this actual analysis from the Hampshire Link Survey. And is also shown from the results of the Doctors Corner Patient Survey in that the hugely popular preferred options both indicate that the respondents would prefer a local GP service. i.e. within walking distance of the existing one." The recommendation as put forward was as follows "that the NHS PCT Cluster Board postpone a decision until such time that proper consultation and exploration of a new build option based upon logical sound and unbiased reasoning be exhausted. We call upon Hampshire Link to design a truly democratic survey to poll only the patients effected from the Locks Road surgery which in our opinion should have been done in the first place." All of the above when considered with respect to the standards required and expected from public bodies concerning fair unbiased representation and public accessibility to all of the facts have tainted this survey in such a way that the Hampshire Link Survey report as submitted to the NHS (PCT) Cluster Board has led to a serious misrepresentation of the information available at the time. Cyth Raul
liverpoolboy
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:34 AMAnd their lousy mp kept stum
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