An Isle of Wight councillor has slammed the decision to permanently move a GP surgery out of Wootton as essentially a closure. It comes after it was revealed yesterday that a ‘temporary relocation’ of Wootton Bridge Medical Centre will, in fact, be permanent – as first reported by Island Echo. ‘Significant structural’ issues remain with the surgery building on Brannon Way, nearly 2 years after they were found, and will now see the practice move to the former NatWest bank on the Riverway Industrial Estate in Newport. Following the shock announcement, which will affect around 9,000 patients, Councillor Sarah Redrup, the Wootton Bridge ward representative, said it was not a relocation but essentially a GP surgery closure for the village and a new practice for Newport. She said:
“When this was first raised in 2022, patients were assured this would be a temporary move and now, overnight, it has become a permanent one. “The practice insists more patients are having telephone appointments and suggests they might not even need to come to the surgery but that is not supported by the data. “The recent GP survey tells us more than 50% of appointments are face-to-face and over 30% of patients make appointments by walking into the surgery. “I am extremely concerned this will have a knock-on effect on the capacity of other surgeries, particularly in Ryde, as patients may decide to register elsewhere. “I just feel this decision cannot be dressed up as the right thing for patients and the people of Wootton, especially at a time when so many are already struggling to get appointments.”
Councillor Ian Dore, representative of the neighbouring Fishbourne and Binstead ward, said there is ‘nothing of substance’ in the information provided to patients. He said:
“Not only is it disgraceful but it is also very regretful community representatives were not engaged ahead of this bombastic announcement. “Instead those that belong to the practice were informed via text message.”
Councillor Dore said this has come as a hammer blow to patients and will be working alongside Councillor Redrup to see how it can best be handled. Healthwatch Isle of Wight has confirmed patients have already raised concerns with them about the move and the impact this will have on their ability to access the new surgery. Joanna Smith, the manager of the health watchdog, said concerns had also been raised about the introduction of a new management team from Solent NHS Trust and the impact it will have on the practice. She said they will be urging Medina Healthcare to regularly engage with and listen to all of their patients, so measures can be put in place to mitigate difficulties that some people will have in accessing the new surgery and to allay any fears about the new management structure.
So, they wanted to put a surgery in a place that has no direct bus route and parking for 5 cars.
Clever
The only time councillors can be arsed to get involved is when it affects them.
Surely the important point is whether there is sufficient parking, because it’s a bugger to find a space on the roads around there.
….and those five spaces will be filled by staff cars. Just as the parking arrangements at East Cowes……..
The Tories what to do to the GP’s that they did to dentist surgeries. Just think what it’s going to be like when we have queues around the block because a NHS GP opens it’s doors. Going to be like the 1800’s soon, and got the Tories to thank for that. Tories give twice the amount of money spent on education to the oil industry as subsidies. Maybe that money could be spent on the people and the NHS instead instead of going into the bank accounts of Tory party donors.
I thought when we left Europe, we had started to put an extra £350 million a month into the NHS. Is that not enough now?
That was a lie to win Premiership, surely by now you realise
MPs lie without moving their lips.
And even if a Tory donor spouts racist remarks about a female MP, so long as he is sincere in his apology the CONservatives get to keep his money, even though the politically correct thing to do would be to return it!
Majority of Politicians are racist, if they are not, why would they
not let Dianne Abbot speak the other day and why ain’t Starmer returned her
whip!
Imagine if the Tory Donor said what he said about Sunak and his family
would that be acceptable.
Proves money makes a person lawless.
What has that all got to do with closing the surgery?
Ian Dore has changed his tune! When he was approached about this he was not interested as it was only a problem for Wootton! He did not appreciate that he also represents Kite HIll and Fishbourne but on a wider issue, people from Havenstreet and Ryde also are patients of this surgery.
Not only is there limited parking, a bus service that only services that route for only 5 times a day on the hour ( so not regular) limiting even further when you could possibly get an appointment to link up with public transport, but looking at google street view i see no Disabled Parking bays, or access for patients who are full time wheelchair users, just a huge set of steps up to the front door,so well done Solent NHS your doing a cracking job, must be a plan by somebody sat behind a desk looking at a spreadsheet and NO medical knowledge of what i required for its patients.
Who cares what Councillors say, all are a waste of space.
Look at the Councillor for Sandown, he could stop
people having to pay 50p to use toilets, he could also stop
the vehicles that are parked illegally in Sandown round
Perowne Way on No Waiting Cones
Councillors are fcuking useless and a waste of money.
They are only concerned about what affects them, not what affects
others.
Lots of people worried about parking provision – make no mistake, nothing will be done to ensure adequate parking at a new site because the council are on a net zero mission to get you out of your vehicles and dependent on public transport or simply confined to your homes, so this will be seen as another opportunity to make life difficult for anyone who dares to rely on their own vehicle – it’s all part of the dystopian plans to reduce your living standards and life chances in order to ‘save the planet’
Can I just point out that we citizens of Newport have been without our West Street Surgery for some years (since lockdown) and have had to make the trip to Wootton on many occasions. At least we will now be able to walk to the new surgery.
It’s not about you is it? What about people who can’t drive or walk, how are patients supposed to get to Newport industrial estate from Wootton? That’s the issue here.
The same way people had to get from Newport to Wootton.
You are so right. The journey works the same both ways, all the negative comment are from the ones that are about to find out what it’s like when the shoe is on the other foot.
You are missing a point here. Wootton already had a doctors’ surgery before the brand new building was erected. The decision was then made to close West Street. There was, and still is a doctor’s surgery in Newport. What this is doing is depriving everyone in the area between Newport and Ryde of a doctor’s surgery.
Perhaps the people in charge should be looking at just how the new structure has failed so quickly?
Maybe it was built by the same people that built the floating farce?
I would like to point out that the only reason more patients are having telephone appointments… is because it is the only way they’ll flipping see you. Since covid you really must pressure them to be seen in person. They are extremely insistent on using e-consult.
This is such a sneaky move.
They are artificially lowering demand by forcing people to use e-consult, then using this as a lever to say the demand doesn’t justify the practice…
The whole thing reeks.
Dower house no longer has e-consult apparently
Well thats darft my dad will not be able to get there. He liked it because he could get the bus in and there were no hills. Dumb move if you ask me.
Disgusting, what about the old and infirm in Wooton & Fishbourne who get a neighbour to take them 5 mins up the road, or get the bus that takes them to the end of the road, and those that don’t have mobile phones and computers ,who have always walked into the Surgery to make appointments and see the Nurses weekly.
This cannot be allowed to happen just to suit the whim of an advisory company or Council employee who has nothing to do with Wooton & Fishbourne.