TENSIONS ran high at Friday’s public meeting on the closure of the Okement Surgery, as NHS England heard the opinions of patients for the first time.

In November NHS England revealed the GP surgery based at the town hospital is to close in April leaving 1,700 patients looking for a new GP. The decision has been made without any public consultation and most patients found out about the closure in the Times.

The Charter Hall housed well over 100 people who turned out to provide their thoughts on the impending closure of the surgery. Patients gave impassioned opinions to representatives from NHS England, Wallingbrook Health Group, Okehampton Town Council and Devon County Council in an effort to provide evidence as to why the surgery should remain open.

Many were angry over the lack of consultation. Others raised issues over a lack of choice, poor public transport links to surgeries in nearby communities and concerns over capacity at Okehampton Medical Centre, which will likely take on the majority of the Okement Surgery’s patients.

Surgery patient and former patient representative Ian Reid said: ‘The people of Okehampton don’t count in this decision. NHS England has nothing to give us, just things to take away. I see an iceberg ahead - and Okehampton is on the Titanic.

‘My big suspicion is that NHS England has our community hospital in its sights. This wants our attention because the hospital is slowly being turned into something else.

‘The NHS has broken their own rules when it comes to this closure and has laid itself wide open for a judicial review. The closure is so far removed from procedure that they wouldn’t stand a day in court.

‘We have been told the closure is going to happen and we have no voice – I think that we do.’

Rachael Crawley, assistant contract manager for NHS England South, said that there were lessons to be learned by the NHS on how to handle similar situations in future, but affirmed that the closure will go ahead despite the public outcry. In response to Mr Reid's comments, she also pointed out that NHS England does not run Okehampton Community Hospital, which is run by Northern Devon NHS Healthcare Trust and control of the hospital is due to change to the RD&E NHS Foundation Trust later this year.

She said: ‘There has been investment in new buildings at Okehampton Medical Centre. Even with the closure of Okement Surgery, the money will follow the patients and stay in the community to provide a high level of healthcare.

‘NHS England is looking to have larger and larger practices, and with the number of patients Okement Surgery had last year, it would not be financially attractive to any provider.’

The surgery is currently run by the Wallingbrook Health Group on behalf of NHS England under a time-limited contract which will end in April. Patients will then be ‘dispersed’ to Okehampton Medical Centre, Hatherleigh, Bow and North Tawton.

County councillor for Okehampton Rural Kevin Ball said that the county council’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee was ‘very disappointed’ with the way NHS England has handled the closure.

He said: ‘For me in this, let alone the lack of choice Okehampton residents will now have, I want to share my disgust at the lack of public consultation. I can’t believe it. If Devon County Council made a decision like this without consultation we would be hauled over the coals for it; and rightly so. 

‘The decision has been made behind closed doors without care or consideration for the patients. We’ve been disregarded in this.

‘The November announcement had to be forced into the press, but patients should have been made aware of the closure six months before this. People who rely on care from Okement Surgery could have helped this process rather than have a bomb being dropped like it was in November.

‘I am a patient at Okehampton Medical Centre and I have had nothing but great service there, but I do have my concerns over its clinical capacity. Having new buildings doesn’t mean you necessarily have the clinical capacity.’

Dr Tim Watson, a partner of Okehampton Medical Centre, was at the meeting to reassure people that the centre has the capacity to cope with extra patients.

He said: ‘People are concerned with our ability to cope. There are two vital things when it comes to capacity, the first being having the space to cope. We are very lucky in that buildings are a problem for many primary care providers in Devon. We have the physical space but most of the issue is having enough people, enough staff. We are interviewing for new staff and having more staff means we can see more patients. We have a capacity for growth of patients coming from the Okement Surgery and the new people we will have in the town through the housing developments. Because of the closure, we are now accelerating plans which were already in place for our growth. We have the correct planning in place and the capacity to cope.’

l See the letters page for comments on the meeting and the decision on the surgery. Add your opinions on our Facebook or Twitter pages or email a letter to timesletters@tindlenews. co.uk