Village angry about GP surgery closure

The ‘closure’ of an Isle of Wight doctors’ surgery has been called a “stab in the back” by angry residents who will no longer have a practice in their village.

In a shock announcement last week, Medina Healthcare announced it would be merging its two practices together in a new facility on the edge of Newport.

The move of Wootton Bridge Medical Centre had always been branded as temporary while ‘significant structural issues’ with the building were resolved but now it has been confirmed as permanent. No date has been announced for the move but village residents were in uproar last night at a Wootton Bridge Parish Council meeting where they demanded answers from the GP surgery and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board.

Cllr Barry Abraham said they had previously supported the surgery but now it feels like a “stab in the back”. The parish council has called for a public meeting, with all the ‘decision-makers’ present.

Cllr Barrie Hailstone, chairman of the parish council, said the decision was ridiculous and announced he would be setting up a sub-working party to ‘carry out investigations’ which would report back to the council. He said they were taking the matter very seriously and they would do their utmost to get to the bottom of it. Cllr Hailstone cautioned they could only do so much and could not promise they would be successful.

One resident said he currently has to go to the surgery for treatment twice a week but he can’t drive and relies on his wife, so to get to Newport, would be an “absolute nightmare”. He called the situation a “shambles” and said the “whole thing had been badly thought out”.

Another resident said it was important the village acts quickly and demands a meeting before it was too late.

Cllr Sarah Redrup said there needed to be a practice in Wootton and they need to come together and think of a way forward as they are not happy with what has happened so far.

Cllr Hailstone called on residents to put protest signs up in their windows and gardens and asked residents to sign a ‘notation of protest’ which will be in the parish council office.

He said the parish needed to show “the anguish of being left in the lurch”.