One of Chard’s two doctors’ surgeries will have to relocate all appointments to another site due to “structural damage” at its current base.
Practice staff announced in August 2024 that they would be closing the waiting room area at Essex House to allow for extensive building work – with patients still being allowed to access the site for appointments via the rear entrance.
The surgery has now told patients it will be relocating to the former Springmead Surgery site on Summerfields Road (which closed in February 2023), arguing that this would be safer for all concerned.
In an email sent to registered patients, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ariel Healthcare said it had carefully considered what was in patients’ best interests and sought to assure those registered that the relocation would not lead to a lower quality of service.
A spokesman said: “Many of you will already be aware that, due to structural damage at the front of our Fore Street building, we have had to temporarily relocate the waiting room area to ensure the safety of both patients and staff and to enable us to continue to provide an area for people to wait.
“As a practice we have reviewed our options around how we manage the building repairs while continuing to keep Fore Street building open and operational, and we have concluded that, in fact, the best and safest approach for all would be to temporarily relocate our operations to a new site instead.”
Chard currently has two NHS doctors’ surgeries, which are both run by Ariel Healthcare – one on Essex House on the A30 Fore Street in the town centre, and one on St. Mary’s Crescent in the south-west of the town.
READ MORE: NHS Somerset confirms closure of GP practice in Chard
The Essex House site will officially relocate to the Springmead Surgery on April 14, allowing contractors to “complete the necessary remedial work” at the former location.
The spokesman added: “We want to reassure patients that this is the only thing changing – we will continue to provide our usual range of services from the new Summerfields Road location.
“And the way patients contact us will also remain the same – including our email address and telephone number.
“Our St. Mary’s site will also remain fully functional and continue to serve patients without any changes.”
Patients who have an appointment booked for on or after April 14 should attend their appointment at the same time but at the Springmead site.
The Essex House site was one of 14 GP surgeries which Somerset health bosses identified in September 2020 would need to either expand or relocate in light of local housing growth.
Financial contributions towards a new GP surgery in the town have been sought from several recently approved housing developments – with the most recent (94 homes on the A358 Tatworth Road) providing more than £48,000 towards this goal.
The NHS Somerset integrated care board (ICB) stated in August 2024 that it was no closer to nailing down the site of a new surgery.
A spokesman said at the time: “We are working closely with the practice, Somerset Council, and other partners to develop plans for modern, high-quality primary care premises.
“At this stage, a number of sites and schemes are being discussed but no decision has been made. When a scheme is finally developed and agreed, the funding arrangements will form part of that.
“We continue to assess local housing development plans and review the potential impact of these on primary medical infrastructure capacity, and where appropriate submit applications for Section 106 funding to support future surgery development programmes.”
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