22 february 2017 guardian witney

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Tempers flare at consultation meeting over Deer Park future

Group accused of ‘not listening to patients’ By George Welch AN NHS consultation on major changes to Oxfordshire’s health services has been greeted with anger and scepticism by campaigners fighting to save Witney’s Deer Park Medical Centre. A six-strong panel of Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) representatives made a presentation on proposals before fielding a Q&A with Witney residents as part of the NHS’s ‘Big Consultation’, outlining an overhaul of health provision in the county. While the proposals are countywide, the topic of conversation at Witney Corn Exchange on Thursday was dominated by one thing – the impending closure of Deer Park Medical Centre. The Edington Square surgery is set to shut at the end of next month, but its future lies in the hands of the Secretary of State after the Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) voted earlier this month that its closure represents a ‘substantial change’. Thursday’s consultation was an opportunity for Witney residents, patients, councillors and politicians to ask health bosses questions about phase one of potential changes to Oxfordshire’s NHS amid swingeing cuts across the organisation.

One of the panellists, Eynsham Medical Centre GP Dr Miles Carter, clarified the OCCG’s stance on Deer Park. He said: “No-one in the OCCG wanted Deer Park to close. We didn’t. Why would we want to close a surgery which is functioning well? “The problem was that when the contract came up for renewal, we put it out to tender, a bid came in and they weren’t able to offer a service that was affordable.” The chief executive of the OCCG, David Smith, added that “we cannot carry on like we are”, as the county’s NHS braces for a deficit of £250m by 2020. Mr Smith, who said there won’t be any GPs at Deer Park from April 1 and doesn’t consider Deer Park’s closure as a ‘substantial change’, also said the OCCG had to make steps in the interest of the centre’s patients. But members of the ‘Save Deer Park Medical Centre’ campaign group are not convinced they are being listened to, with Linda Sturt, a patient at Deer Park for 17-years, saying she ‘isn’t buying’ the consultation and that it was ‘an absolute waste of time’. The Minster Lovell resident has six VË Í ÖjÄË Ë¬?~jËÏ

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