NEW and late information available to the Health Board relating to accommodating GP services in the Neyland and Johnston Medical Practice means that a decision to move Johnston patients to practices in Haverfordwest and Milford Haven has been scrapped.
The Board’s Vacant Practice Panel had recommended the immediate closure of the Johnston Surgery, with patients there re-registered in practices in Milford and Haverfordwest at the end of October.
Local GPs, pharmacies, community councils, and patients vehemently objected to the plan.
However, until the new information arrived, the Board was certain to follow the Panel’s recommendation.
However, the Board heard that a fresh proposal involving alternative premises, the possible recruitment of more GPs, and fresh provision on a new model gave the Board the chance to avoid dispersing patients in Johnston elsewhere.
The Board will establish a new practice to cover all 6,000 patients registered and will review the Vacant Practice Panel procedure.
The Board acknowledged retaining a 6,000-patient practice was a risk but that keeping a practice of that size would be more attractive to new GPs.
The key submission to the Board came from Community Interest Care CIC, a group including a former deputy director of the Health Board, business stakeholders, and input from the Council’s Director of Social Services, Jonathan Griffiths.
Member of the CIC, Cllr Paul Miller, told The Herald the Board deserved praise for listening to the strong concerns of patients and other practices about retaining a consolidated service.
He said: “Since the Vacant Panel process, it has become apparent that there are opportunities to use alternative premises, and additional GPs have come forward to support the practice in the short term.
“Given that maintaining the full list of 6000 patients will support the medium-long term sustainability of the practice, we can now commit to maintaining the list at 6000 patients.
“I’m very pleased that Hywel Dda Health Board’s meeting today confirmed the recommendation to manage the Neyland GP Practise for 12 months directly.
“Their decision gives us the breathing space we need to develop a sustainable, long-term plan for maintaining GPs’ services.”
He continued: “I was also pleased to note that the Health Board rejected the recommendation to disperse the patient list from Johnston.
“That’s really good news in my view for the long-term viability of the practice, and I’d like to put on record my thanks to the Health Board for listening to the concerns I, many patients, the LMC and the neighbouring practices raised.
“We’ve now got 12 months to come up with a plan to sustain the service long term and I look forward to working constructively with the Health Board to make sure we do.”
Neyland Town Council welcomed Thursay’s decision by the Board of the Hywel Dda University Health Board to retain the full patient list currently held by the Neyland and Johnston Surgery, and to run the Practice as a whole as a Health Board ‘managed practice.’
In an official statemenet the council said: “We appreciate that a ‘managed practice’ is not the ideal solution for any Practice, but as an interim measure to allow time for an alternative GP services provider to put forward a viable business case, the Board’s bold and sensible decision in light of new information not to accept the initial Vacant Practice Panels recommendation to disperse the patient list, will certainly be welcomed by Neyland’s community, as well as the communities in Johnston and other areas surrounding Neyland.
“The decision to maintain the existing patient list of approximately 6000 patients is important to the long-term future of the Practice, and is something that Neyland Town Councillors have been calling for since meeting with Members of Hywel Dda’s management team on the 11th August 2022. Removing the immediate uncertainty around the future of the Practice will go some way to address the concerns and worries of our community, regarding obtaining Health Care Services locally, in line with a stated aim of the Board. Neyland Town Council would urge Hywel Dda UHB to fully engage with alternative providers, as the Vacant Practice Panel suggested in their report to the Board and indeed in today’s meeting and would ask them to explore all avenues available to secure the long-term future and success of the Neyland and Johnston GP Surgery.
“Moving forward, to address concerns raised in today’s meeting regarding the process followed by the Vacant Practice Panel, if faced with a similar situation again we would ask that the Board seriously consider automatically moving a vacant practice to a ‘managed practice’ for a set period of a minimum of 12 months. A proposal previously made by Neyland Town Council in the 11th August meeting. This would provide some security for surgery staff and importantly remove immediate concerns of the patient base, while allowing the Vacant Practice Panel sufficient time to explore every avenue, which would be in addition to their already extensive workload.”
