AN UPDATE has been delivered to patients in Moffat who have been affected by changes at a GP practice in the town.
Patients registered at Church Place have been contacted by Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care – who are taking over responsibility after the GPs managing the practice gave notice on their contract to provide NHS services.
Gary Sheehan is Locality Manager for Annandale and Eskdale, and he said: “We’ve had to work quickly to make alternate arrangements for the 2342 patients registered at Church Place.
“Thirty of the 33 GP practices in Dumfries and Galloway are independent contractors – effectively private businesses – holding a contract with NHS Dumfries and Galloway to provide GP services for patients.
“Church Place Surgery, Moffat, gave notice on their contract, affecting services at both the Moffat surgery and also their branch surgery at Johnstonebridge.
“This means that the Health and Social Care Partnership have to now take on responsibility for providing primary medical services to the patients who are registered at Church Place.”
Gary added: “Obviously, the continued provision of GP services to so many people in this community is incredibly important.
“So, after working to review the situation we’ve now notified patients that the Health and Social Care Partnership will continue to provide services to them once the contract ends on October 1 2018.
“We’re also notifying that we’re currently working on the best way to integrate services with High Street Surgeries in Moffat – which is one of the few GP practices in the region which the NHS already manages directly.
“Once we have confirmed these arrangements, which will include the provision of GP services for patients who live in Johnstonebridge, we will write out again in September 2018 to ensure everyone is aware of how and where they can access services.”
Church Place Surgery staff have been given the opportunity to transfer their employment from their current employer to the Health Board.
And Gary said: “Currently there’s competition across the country for GPs, and both practices in Moffat have vacancies.
“One positive which may emerge from this comes from the fact it may be easier to recruit to a larger practice with more GPs.
“However, this is not a situation which we would have predicted, and so we are working as quickly as possible to put in place arrangements which we hope will work well for all patients.
“In the meantime, we appreciate people may have some anxiety about the continuation of GP services, but I can assure the public that having been presented with this situation we are continuing to work to achieve the best solution to this situation.”
