South Tyneside GP surgery with 3,000 patients to close

The Park Surgery, which is based within The Glen Primary Care Centre, in Hebburn.

South Tyneside NHS bosses say they are offering support for patients of The Park Surgery in Hebburn, after doctors “reluctantly” decided to bring their contract to an end.

The Park Surgery currently provides services for nearly 3,000 patients from its base in Glen Street.

Patients will be able to continue using the practice until March next year.

The closure of the practice does not affect patients registered at the neighbouring practice, The Glen Medical Group.

Matt Brown, director of operations at NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “The provider of the service at The Park Surgery has taken the difficult decision to request an early exit from their contract and no longer provide GP services for that practice.

“The CCG has reluctantly agreed to accept the request to mutually terminate the contract.

“We understand that this may be unsettling for patients, but we would like to reassure everyone that they can continue to use the practice in the usual way until the end of March 2019.

“We want patients to know that they will still be able to access high quality GP services in the local area.

“There are seven practices within three miles of The Park Practice that are currently accepting new patient registrations, including two within two minutes’ walk of the practice (The Glen Medical Group and Victoria Medical Group).”

The CCG says it has written to all patients registered at the practice, providing them with information on how they can register at another practice and inviting them to attend a drop-in session where they can ask further questions.

Mr Brown added: “We would like to encourage patients who have questions to attend our drop in event at Hebburn Central on October 15 between 3pm and 5pm.

“This session will be attended by the CCG alongside NHS England, The Park Surgery and Healthwatch.

“If anyone is concerned and would like to discuss the practice with an independent organisation, Healthwatch South Tyneside can help.”

Healthwatch South Tyneside can be contacted by calling 0191 489 7952 or going onlinie to www.healthwatchsouthtyneside.co.uk