LETTER: National strategy to close surgeries

I have lived in Horsham for 36 years and have always been well served by Courtyard Surgery.

My elderly mother is now also a Horsham town centre resident and needs trips to Courtyard Surgery about every six weeks for blood tests and then GP follow up appointments to which I have to take her.

Courtyard and Orchard surgeries have both been newly built and Riverside Surgery extensively refurbished to cater for the increasing number of Horsham residents and it seems sheer lunacy to even suggest that there is a case for closing down purpose-built healthcare centres.

It came as quite a shock to read in the national press that 500 GP surgeries have been closed down in the past five years and only 110 opened.

It would seem, therefore that this is a strategy of the CCG and NHS England and not, as Dr Patel would have us believe, merely a discussion about how to proceed with providing healthcare for the increasing number of residents in this area.

If closure of surgeries is the aim of the CCG and NHS England then I guess that is what they will do and this so-called ‘discussion period’ is merely so they can claim they did nothing without first involving the community.

HELEN GARGANO (Mrs)

Newlands Road, Horsham