Patients of Fareham GP group Sovereign stage public meeting over ongoing concerns

The partnership includes Highlands GP Practice (pictured), The Whiteley Surgery and Jubilee Surgery, in Titchfield.

ONGOING concerns about a group of GP surgeries in Fareham will be the focus of a public meeting expected to draw a large crowd this weekend.

Members of the Facebook group Patients of Highlands, Jubilee and Whiteley Surgeries are coordinating the patient forum in the main assembly hall of Fareham Academy, running from 2pm to 4pm on Saturday.

Residents have previously decried the service across the surgeries as ‘shambolic’, with a public health meeting earlier this year hearing a string of complaints about long telephone waiting time and severe difficulties in seeing a GP.

Concerns had previously led 1,700 people to sign a petition demanding better services.

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Joe Waggott, a administrator for the patients’ Facebook group, said more than 60 people were expected to attend so far.

He added that patient representatives had felt ‘fobbed off’ during meetings with the surgeries management.

He said: ‘We’ve tried to help them. (The service) hasn’t got any better. We’re hearing daily of issues of patients trying to make face to face appointments, patients calling at 9am in the morning and saying there’s no point, there’s no appointments available.’

‘At the meeting, we want to update patients what we’ve achieved so far and map out a way forward, and hopefully get some more hands on deck.’

The Fareham resident said the group was looking to solicit feedback on a recent CQC report relating to the surgeries.

The three surgeries fall under Sovereign Health Partnership, formed in 2017.

Earlier in the year, the partnership addressed complaints by taking on more staff and staging a public meeting.