The merger of two local GPs surgeries will be completed on Monday when the new West Hampstead Medical Centre opens for business in Solent Road.
The new practice comprises the Mill Lane Medical Centre, which closed today, and the old Solent Road Health Centre, from whose premises the practice will now operate.
The original Solent Road surgery was closed last Autumn, and its patient list moved to Mill Lane. The centre has been undergoing refurbishments since then.
The Camden New Journal reports that doctors in Camden are being told to remove from their lists patients who they have not seen for a while:
"Patients who have not visited their doctor for more than a year are falling foul of Camden Primary Care Trust’s list-cleaning, which aims to get rid of ‘ghosts’ from the books and save hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process.
But angry GPs claim the process is harming healthy patients who have not needed to see their doctor for some time as well as their most vulnerable patients."
The merger of Mill Lane Medical Centre and Solent Road Health Centre is going ahead.
Solent Road Health Centre will close on 7th September, and its patients assigned to the already over-stretched Mill Lane centre. The merged practice will eventually be located in the Solent Road premises, which are to be refurbished. The new centre is supposed to open in the new year.
The last we heard of this story, patients were going to be consulted on the proposed merger. Northwest 6 is not aware of such a consultation having taken place.
There's to be a public meeting at which you can find out more about the plan on 17th July at the Solent Road Health Centre.
Consultation will begin soon on the proposed merger of the Solent Road and Mill Lane doctors' surgeries in West Hampstead.
Camden Primary Care Trust has told Northwest 6 that a letter will be sent shortly to all patients affected.
Northwest 6 has received confirmation of plans to merge the Solent Road and Mill Lane doctors' surgeries in West Hampstead.
The intention is to redevelop the premises of the Solent Road practice, and locate a merged practice there. Camden Primary Care Trust has told Northwest 6 that the list of patients at Solent Road has been "provisionally assigned" to the Mill Lane medical centre.
The development of the Solent Road premises is intended to enable the provision of a greater range of services and also to allow the enlarged practice to cater for a greater number of patients. The Primary Care Trust says the panel which approved the plan expected it would create the following benefits:
"Maximum continuity of care to the practice populations;
"The opportunity to develop a large purpose-built practice in a relatively under-doctored area, with potential for further expansion of the list and development of additional services to patients;
"Improved access for local communities;
"An opportunity to improve the quality of services and ensure more focused clinical leadership;
"Greater opportunity for patient participation in the delivery of services."
More on the proposed mergers of two GPs' practices in West Hampstead. The story is not quite as reported in the Camden New Journal.
Camden Primary Care Trust has told Northwest 6 that the merger of the Mill Lane and Solent Road practices is one of a number of options being considered. A decision is expected early in 2007.
The local campaign group, West Hampstead Amenity & Transport, says a merger of the practices could be a mixed blessing. The chairwoman of WHAT, Virginia Berridge, told Northwest 6, "If it means better premises then good - the Mill Lane facilities are poor and don't have disabled access. But if it means fewer doctors, that would be bad."
The Camden New Journal reports that the GP practices in Mill Lane and Solent Road, West Hampstead, are to be merged.
Apparently, if the proposal falls through, private companies will be invited to run the merged operation.
