3,700 Shrewsbury patients will have to find new GP as practice to close

Shropshire CCG has failed to find a new provider to take over the running of Whitehall Medical Practice in Monkmoor.

The CCG had tried to find a new provider to run the GP services at the Monkmoor Road practice through a formal procurement process where interested parties were asked to submit proposals.

The current operator, Malling Health, will cease to provide the service on September 30 when its contract ends.

Registered patients will still be able to continue to use the services at the practice until it closes, however patients will need to register with another alternative local GP before Whitehall Medical Practice closes at the end of the month.

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The CCG has written to patients who are registered at the practice to update them on the outcome of the procurement process and to provide details of how to find a new GP before the practice closes. For any patients who do not register with another GP before the deadline, the CCG will automatically transfer them to a local alternative GP practice.

Patients will be advised in writing of where they have been registered. This is to ensure that all patients can still access GP services.

All GP practices in Shropshire have an open list, which means that there are able to accept new patients. All GP practices have geographical boundaries which they cover and patients must live within this boundary to register. Information can be found on the practices' websites.

Nicky Wilde, director of Primary Care at the CCG, said: “Despite the best efforts of the CCG, disappointingly no interested parties came forward to take on the running of the new contract for the GP service so regrettably the practice will close.

“We are confident that patients will be able to find places at other local alternative practices and we have been working with those practices in close vicinity to help accommodate transferring patients.”

A spokesperson on behalf of Malling Health, said: "It’s been a privilege to serve the patients of Shrewsbury over the past few years.

“We are cooperating with the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group to direct the patients of Shrewsbury to alternative GP practises ahead of 30th September 2019.”