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Surgery will close despite promise

Kate Stirrup
4/ 9/2003

A BUSY doctors' surgery in Whalley Range is to close - less than three months after health bosses promised it stay open.

The surgery, on York Avenue in the Manley Park area, was threatened with closure in June when the head GP, Dr Gill, decided to leave the practice.

Following protests by patients who said alternative practices were too far away, Trafford North Primary Care Trust said it had found another doctor willing to run the surgery. But now the Trust says the surgery is to close for good in two weeks time, leaving patients fuming.

The reason given for closing the surgery is that doctors have been unable to reach a rental agreement for the use of the premises.

Whalley Range councillor John Grant said: "This news is devastating for local people.

"They have been kept in the dark, no-one has been listening to them and they are being shifted from doctor to doctor and practice to practice. It's a disgrace."

And fellow local councillor Kath Fry, who helped organise a patients' petition in June said: "The closure is not the PCT's fault. It is disappointing that the two doctors concerned have not been able to reach an agreement about the premises.

"Having thought that a solution had been reached I'm very disappointed things are now uncertain again."

A spokesperson for Trafford North PCT said: "As previously reported, the current GP partnership at York Avenue had decided to close. However, at the eleventh hour, Dr Kuna from Seymour Grove Health Centre decided that she could cover the York Avenue practice.

"The PCT has been working with the two practices to try and resolve issues around the continued use of the premises.

Unfortunately the practices have been unable to reach agreement for the use of the premises. This means that the site at York Avenue will regrettably have to close."

Patients can now either register with another GP; go to see Dr Kuna at Seymour Grove or travel to Dr Gill's other surgery in Urmston.