Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt meets with health secretary Steve Barclay to push for North Harbour surgery replacement as patients left 'anxious' by uncertainty

Last month, North Harbour Medical Group gave formal notice that it will return its contract to provide healthcare for its 9,000 patients, who will now be allocated to other practices across the city.

Patients face a three-month wait to be allocated a new practice, as the NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board are aiming to have completed all patient moves by April 2023.

A new GP surgery to replace North Harbour is being planned for the nearby Highclere site, with a time-frame yet to be confirmed.

Now the MP for Portsmouth North, Penny Mordaunt, has met with the health secretary Steve Barclay to ask for funding for a new surgery and a ‘prefab’ service to run while a new facility is being built.

The MP said: ‘Patients want zero disruption and good continuity of care. The new Highclere facility will be great but I don’t want people to have to have to change GP practices twice in as many years. Let’s make this stress free and put patient wellbeing first.

‘The (Integrated Care Board) needs to explore all the options it has and focus on what the patients at North Harbour need. If that is a continuation of services at North Harbour site in advance of Highclere opening, then that is what we should do.’

It comes as the city has one of the highest rates of patients per GP in the country with 2,483 patients for every GP., according to research released last year.

A representative from Healthwatch Portsmouth, an independent statutory body that advocates on behalf of patients, said that patients are becoming increasingly concerned about the situation in Cosham.

Roger Batterbury from Healthwatch Portsmouth, said: ‘We have heard that patients are anxious about their access to primary care, including by phone or eConsult services.

‘We have asked that additional telephone capacity is in place at the surgeries due to take calls from the bulk of the transferred patients as well as frontline staff to answer these calls and respond to eConsult requests.

‘We have been giving the patient perspective and engagement advice in discussions held during the two meetings with Penny Mordaunt and plan to do so in a third meeting which will take place later this month.’

North Harbour Medical Group is running a series of meetings to keep patients informed.

The next meeting will be held at Cosham Baptist Church between 7pm and 8.30pm on Tuesday, January 24.

Another meeting will be held the next day from 12.30pm to 2pm at Cosham Community Centre.

A final meeting will be held on Thursday, January 27, from 7pm to 8.30pm via Microsoft Teams online, with a link on the surgery’s website.