Keighley News

CALL FOR NEW GP SURGERY FOR AREA

By Miran Rahman

8:30am Friday 27th January 2012

People responding to proposals to close a Keighley GP surgery have argued it should not be shut until a replacement becomes available.

They said closing the Vale Street Surgery, in Stockbridge, would have a disproportionate impact on women, children and the elderly.

Their views feature in an NHS report on the outcome of a public consultation to help decide the future of the surgery.

Bradford and Airedale NHS, which oversees local GP services, has suggested closing the outdated Vale Street premises, which is in a former terraced house and seen as unsuitable for patient care.

If it is closed, extra clinics would be held at the North Street Surgery to cater for Vale Street patients, but in the longer term, the intention is to move all 7,500 patients to a new purpose-built facility.

The first of the questions posed by the consultation asked people whether they agreed that it would be better to spend limited funds on building a new surgery instead of trying to modernise Vale Street.

The report says that of 404 people who responded, 48 per cent agreed a new surgery should be developed, 42 per cent disagreed and the remainder did not know or had no comment.

The report states that those in favour of an entirely new surgery pointed out that the existing building was too small for patients’ needs.

They also said it only had unisex toilets, had poor access for disabled people and children in pushchairs and had not enough privacy in the reception area.

A total of 644 people responded to the consultation’s second question: “Do you agree with our proposal to close Vale Street Surgery?” – 88 per cent replied “no” and less than nine per cent said “yes”.

Speaking after the public responses were announced, veteran community activist Charlie Bhowmick said he agreed that Vale Street was not ideal for modern standards of medical treatment. But he added that proposals to close it were worrying and frustrating for patients who live nearby and find it hard to travel longer distances.

“The reality today is that we have to move with the times,” he said. “I think it’s more acceptable to build something new than to try and adapt what’s already there.”

As well as stressing the need for a replacement property before any closure of Vale Street, consultation respondents supported the idea of a new surgery potentially being built either in the Alston Retail Park area or in Lawkholme.

They warned that a lot of local families do not have their own transport, struggle to afford taxis and do not want to travel on public transport when they are ill.

The report on the consultation’s outcome, which will be noted today by Bradford Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee, also records that a 240-signature petition objecting to Vale Street’s closure had been received by the primary care trust.

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