RESIDENTS in Shebbear left without a doctor in the village for the first time in 130 years have launched a campaign to fight for their surgery to be reopened.

Signatures were gathered outside the recent parish council meeting as the Save our Surgery campaign gathered momentum.

Currently patients are having to travel ten miles to Holsworthy Medical Practice to see a doctor or a nurse.

The doors to Beech House Surgery have been locked after negotiations between retiring GP Dr Francis Fernandez and Ruby Country Medical Group broke down at the start of July.

While RCMG has suggested that Dr Fernandez pulled out of the deal, he has now said it was the medical group which pulled out of the agreement to transfer ownership of the surgery buildings at the 11th hour.

A public statement from him read out at Shebbear Parish Council meeting on Tuesday last week, August 14, has intensified fears that the village surgery will never reopen.

Resident Carol Hunt said: ‘We just want our surgery back. We want this sorted out one way or another. It is ten miles to Holsworthy. I haven’t been to the doctor since this happened. I want my surgery back, and I want to walk down the road to get there, to where it has always been.

‘I don’t know what the problem is, they just keep saying it isn’t suitable, but it has been suitable for all these years. And it has its own pharmacy and all the equipment needed. We really don’t understand it.’

Dr Fernandez told Shebbear Parish Council in the statement that RCMG had pulled out of the agreement ‘the Wednesday before the transfer’ without giving any reason.

He said: ‘I would be very happy if RCMG or another group decided to use the buildings as GP premises.

‘From our point of view they are ready to be used.’

NHS England, the body responsible for commissioning GP care, awarded the contract to Ruby Country Medical Group to take over Hatherleigh Medical Centre and Shebbear’s Beech House Surgery from Dr Fernandez earlier this year.

NHS head of communications and engagement Glen Everton said this meant the practice had the responsibility to provide GP care for Shebbear residents but how they chose to do it was up to them.

‘They have to make sure people have access to a GP but that could mean many things.

‘A lot of villages don’t have a surgery at all.’

He said that RCMG had recruited an extra GP who would be starting in October.

Meanwhile, in Hatherleigh, an application has been submitted on RCMG’s behalf for planning permission and change of use to convert the old NatWest building into a doctor’s surgery for the town.

The Times has approached RCMG for a comment on the plans for Shebbear Surgery but none had been forthcoming at the time of going to press.