Over 150 patients attended an open meeting at Gresley Old Hall to give their views on the practice merger. The merger, which was detailed at the meeting, will result in thousands more patients receiving their care at a state of the art health centre.
In January, Heartwood Medical Practice merged with The Poplars Surgery, to facilitate the retirement, due to ill health, of Dr Singh. As you know, Dr Varma retired last summer. Heartwood Medical Practice was established in November 2006, when Swadlincote Health Centre opened on Civic Way. The health centre and practice were designed to accommodate the needs of the increase in population in the area. The number of patients cared for at Heartwood Medical Practice has continued to increase. With the merger with The Poplars, the practice now cares for 6000 patients. The practice list remains open and people will continue to be able to register at the practice, which has the capacity to care for at least 8000 patients.
The Poplars is a privately owned building and is no longer a suitable environment to provide modern healthcare. The decision has therefore been made to plan for the closure of the branch surgery at the end of August. All patients will then be seen at the health centre.
At the meeting, patients raised a number of issues on transport, travel and car parking, and Derbyshire Primary Care Trust is now looking to make improvements by working with key partners across the county.
Jackie Pendleton, Assistant Director of Commissioning at Derbyshire County PCT said "We are delighted that so many patients were able to attend the meeting and we appreciate their feedback, which is so valuable to us. We have listened carefully to their views and we will do everything we can to address the issues that have been raised. It can be sad for patients that changes have to be made when doctors retire. However we have a wonderful new building at Swadlincote Health Centre, where patients can receive lots of services under one roof as well as seeing their GP. There are consultant clinics, dental treatment and many other services and facilities."
Dr Gerry Bryant, GP at Heartwood said "We are pleased to be able to help and to provide care for The Poplars patients and hope for a smooth transfer. Poplars patients will continue to see familiar faces, as the staff are moving too. We now have three permanent GPs and will be able to offer more choice of clinician for all of our patients. We will also be able to offer longer opening hours and a wider choice of appointment times to suit our patients. As the practice continues to grow, a 4th GP will be appointed in due course. We realise that people can find these changes difficult but we have been able to make over 3000 'new' patients feel welcome and cared for - we do understand peoples concerns and will do what we can to allay their anxieties. The move to Swadlincote Health Centre will be more convenient for some patients and we want everyone to feel welcome. However we realise that a few patients may want their doctor to be close to where they live."
May we take this opportunity to thank Dr Goodacre for his commitment to The Poplars over the past eighteen months, since Dr Singh first became ill. He is a pleasure to work with.
Everyone at The Poplars would also like to thank patients for their support, as the past 18 months have been difficult. Your patience and understanding has been appreciated. We will do out utmost to give continued personal service to all patients, along with the Heartwood team, and look forward to seeing patients, both new and old, in our new workplace.